What A Disaster?

Yes I can confirm the offline thing is a flight profile (I guess it needs to be stated more implicitly). The MP3 works fine for me (though its annoying that when playing music of an MMC you can't run applications installed on the MMC) grr! That said I haven't really come across a use where I'd want to do both. What I would like is a second MMC card so I ca play music / have e-mails on MMC etc while playing a rich game.

I don't agree with all of what Russ says, but I can see the point about it feeling rushed. To me thats typical first gen productitis. I personally think Nokia have done an impressive job for a first device.

I can see the point about the laucnher, but coming form the S60 background I prefer it. I spoke to a N-Gage user who said at first he found ti annoying, but who now uses his N-Gage as much for its smartphone functions as for games (this from a dedicated gamer).

My personal take is that Nokia over emphasised the gaming aspects - a lot of people dont realise how powerful it is. They haven't twigged to the fact it will do your e-mail, basic browsing, calendar and any number of 3rd party S60 programs. I don't think we'll see N-Gage liscensed away as Russ predicts (yet) [though maybe some other manufactutrers liscensed to do a N-Gage device]. I dont think we'll see N-Gage enabled ordinary phones.

My prediction would be more emphasis on what else the phone can do and an N-Gage 2 not too far off (this time next year, perhaps 18 months) that fixes a lot of the problems.

I think that N-Gage has got hammered in its initial reception. I can see why (I think a lot of the negative stuff in the gaming press and to an extent elsewhere is snobbery). However I think long term N-Gage will do very well for itself. YES PSP, Nintendo etc are going to provide competition. I don't doubt Nokia will respond (they've got a cash pile after all), and while I dont think N-Gage will be anything like dominant I think it will have a share. But the N-Gage is differentiated and will remain so, that I think maybe the key.

I agree with this also.

I mean Nokia have a complete fashion brand which is more famous and well known to the type of user who will make use of the game/phone machine as we have already seen.

It is also clear that Sony and Panasonic clearly have no idea of how to capture this market with their phones which are complicated to use, ugly, lower spec, and most importanly less compatible as fewer handsets in circulation.

Lets not forget that Apple made a computer 10 times more powerful and better looking and easier to use but was not adopted ultimately due to cost and compatibility. The Two things that NOKIA have in endless supply...

P

It is also clear that Sony and Panasonic clearly have no idea of how to capture this market with their phones which are complicated to use, ugly, lower spec, and most importanly less compatible as fewer handsets in circulation.

????

On the contrary:

Sony Ericsson are clearly gaining market share again. I believe they might topple Samsung and get some market share from Motorola in a few year's time.

As for 'ugly' that is very personal. I personally think both the P800 and P900 (as well as the non-Symbian T620) are beautifully designed.

As for 'lower spec', that is simply not true. Compare a P900 with any Nokia phone except for the not yet shipping 7700.

As for 'Less compatible', in what sense do you mean?

As for Panasonic, yes they might not be that widespread, but this is because their focus has mainly been the Pacific Rim and primarily the Japanese domestic FOMA market.

I worked out that the N-Gage was simply a Series 60 phone with a game-friendly key layout before I bought one. In fact, that's the *reason* I bought one. First two things I installed were a C64 emulator and a GB/GBC emulator that had already been developed for the S60.