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N-Gage - Branding, Image, Follow-Up Possibilities
Thanks to Costik.com for its in-depth discussion of the Nokia N-Gage's advantages and disadvantages, a post sparked by Scott Miller's weblog post on the same subject, in which the 3D Realms founder argues "Nokia means cell phones to consumers. So, when Nokia jumps into the games market, it doesn't make sense to people", and concludes: "Nokia needs to create a separate company to handle the N-Gage. The 'Nokia' name should never be associated with this device, much like the Toyota name is not associated with Lexus." Greg Costikyan's reply counters: "Launching N-Gage as a Nokia device wasn't a bad idea; the flaws of the device were, however", and ends: "I personally would not be surprised if, two or three years from now, Nokia decides to give it another go, with a new device."
So next time Nokia go out and talk to your target audience some more. Go to a few malls or something and talk to some people buying games. Go to an arcade or two. Find out where the gamers are and ask them what they think. Don't just assume what we will and won't like. So far you aren't doing so good at that.
"Armed forces abroad are of little value unless there is prudent counsel at home" - Cicero
Was Sony ever considered a gaming company before they released the Playstation?
Too many zeros, not enough ones
Of everyone I've ever known who has had any kind of handheld gaming device, I honestly can't say I've ever heard even one person say, "You know, I really wish I could make phone calls on this, too."
Feeping creaturism.
I've gotta go with choice B here - the fact that it said Nokia on it was not a problem (Any more than the fact that the Playstation said Sony on it, and Sony was known as a maker of Walkmen).
The problem was that it had a crappy display, crappy controls, and you had to take the battery out to change the games.
They could have released that under any brand name, and it would have bombed.
Philip Sandifer's academic website
The N-Gage would have been a flop whatever name was written on it, because it's a fatally flawed product.
The Lexus comparison is inappropriate. The reason Toyota created a different brand name for Lexus is because the knew there would be consumer resistance among executive car buyers to a very expensive Toyota, no matter how good it was. As the failure of the Volkswagen Phaeton shows, they were right.
The N-Gage isn't a premium product aimed at stuck-in-their-ways 50+ executives who are being asked to spend 6 months income in one go, it's a phone aimed at kids, so sticking a (formerly) respected phone company name on it is entirely appropriate.
Having said that, there *is* a really good reason the phone should not have had Nokia written on it that the article seems to have completely missed - there are a whole generation of kids growing up with 'Nokia = embarassingly bad design' lodged in their heads.
A pizza of radius z and thickness a has a volume of pi z z a
"And who was dumb enough to think that people would be willing to take out the battery to switch cartridges?"
Heh. The problems you've mentioned, though they suck, are somewhat tolerable. What REALLY bugged me about the N-Gages was that all the demo units I played with had a "out of memory" message that you get when the phone feels it's time to reboot. I have enough of these problems as a Windows gamer, I aint taking that on the road.
"Derp de derp."
No offense meant to you and I'm not trying to disprove your point. But at my local Gamestop, the only reason they were out of stock was because the few people who did buy them had to keep exchanging them for models that worked. I saw one kid come in with his dad and make his 4th exchange within a month. I then asked the cashier and he said that most of the people who bought them found defects.
It's like sex, except I'm having it!
Tried playing an NGage in the store, a local Game Stop. The device was too complicated to figure out in the ten minutes I had. Had a small screen and the options were hard to set. Many buttons. Looked and worked more like an all-in-one remote than a handlheld game console.
They could have solved my issues by setting up some sort of kiosk where I can try the unit out completely and ask questions.
If I can't figure out a toy in under ten minutes, I'd better be able to program for it later on. Especially when the device costs > $100 and has monthly service fees.
Freedom is trouble :)
Here's to losing my Karma Bonus again....