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Nokia Admits N-Gage Sales Below Expectations
Thanks to the UK Financial Times for its article discussing Nokia's first public acknowledgment that the Nokia N-Gage 'mobile game deck' has not performed to expectations. According to the article: "'The sales are in the lower quartile of the bracket we had as our goal,' Jorma Ollila, the Finnish group's chairman and chief executive told the FT.", and it was further noted that "Nokia has set a target of selling 9m of the devices in the first two years, but the company has now corroborated early evidence from game stores that sales have been sluggish." Nokia had previously reported positive results in the short post-launch period, despite apparent evidence to the contrary, but the FT article ends with the Nokia chairman's comments that "the N-Gage had to be given until November 2005 before it could be judged a success or failure."
If it makes them feel any better, it sold considerably better than my expected 0 units.
"Well, we sorta kinda sold less than 25% of what we thought we would, but as far as it being a success or failure... just give us another um, 21 months. Then we'll be able to judge."
Use Ctrl-C instead of ESC in Vim!
How can they expect mass appeal whenever they're offering these things for $380? I can go buy a freakin gamecube and a PS2 for less than that, then go sign up for a phone plan and get a phone for free.
The pricing point in this article can't be correct. I just can't possibly fathom how they would expect people to run screaming into the stores for these things when they're charging this much.
For those unknowing (the websites don't really cover this.)
There is a nice FAQ about the NGage here
N-Gage Specifications
CPU: 104Mhz ARM processor 12-bit CPU
Maximum Simultaneous Colors: 4096
Resolution: 176 x 208 pixels
Size: 133.7 x 69.7 x 20.2 mm
Weight: 137 g
Operating System: Symbian OS with Java 2 Micro Edition support
Memory: 4MB internal
N-Gage Features
High performance mobile 3D gaming
Gaming-optimized design and functionality
Bluetooth
Digital music player and recorder
Stereo FM radio
Nokia Audio Manager PC software
New design concept, new UI experience
Multimedia messaging
Full email support (IMAP4, POP3, SMTP, MIME2)
Content with XHTML browser
Tri-band EGSM 900/GSM1800/GSM 1900
Series 60 UI enabling application multitasking
Slave USB 1.1. for digital music download from PC
MP3, AAC, Midi, WAV ringing tones
WAP over GPRS
The author of this was: Scott Tsukamoto
I was so shocked to read this.
I actually think it'll be the other way around. A friend of mine owns one and it is so awkward to use as a phone that it's only real use is as a console.
If it's too difficult, I can't understand it !
"...the N-Gage had so many design flaws and stupid decisions I can't even begin to count them..."
My problem is with the poor design decisions, not with the design flaws. The N-Gage doesn't seem to have any real flaws, just conscious improper choices. The original PS2 had design flaws, i.e. with not playing DVDs, lasers going bad etc. However, having to disassemble the phone to change games is something they actually discussed and felt comfortable with.
That's what I can't stand. It's one thing to hear someone say something stupid. They may not know better, but when a group of people choose to be ridiculous, well, my sympathy goes way down.
-- I have fans? Wow.