Nokia and Cingular today announced the the Nokia E62 will be available on Cingular from September 29th at a starting price of $150 (subsidised) which should ensure a competitive total cost of ownership cost compared to its competitors. The Nokia E62 is the US variant of the Nokia E61 and will also be available on the Rogers network in Canada.
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What's the point of buying this? The single greatest feature the Wi-Fi has been removed. You're better off getting an unlocked E61::con?
I'd argue strongly that the E62 is *not* the US version of the E61.
The E61 is already quad-band GSM so it would be perfectly competant in the US, the E62 is a feature reduced version of the E61 for US/Canadian operators...
People will but it because its relatively cheap with an official Cingular contract and support.
It does not have WiFi because Cingular probably did not want it to. They may see this as reudcing the amount of chargable data used over its own network (This is a short sighted view in my opinion). I dont think 3G is fully off the ground in the states so dropping this probably saved costs.
One of the problems with getting phones released in the states is that the network suppliers have a lot more clout over there than here. Hence phone manufacturers having to go through several hoops before they can get their devices supported by them. I think this is the main reason why phone technology if so far behind over there.
I think the E62 will do well but its still not a mass market phone. If Nokia want to push Series 60 over there then I think they need to get the E50 supported over there. I know its a bit of a simple not frills device for most AAS readers but I think it has huge potential as a very good standard business phone that will appeal to the general public as well no matter where they are in the world.
The firmware update for the E61 does not allow the use of Blackberry Connect in the Americas with Cingular "currently". So are those of us with E61 going to be punished by Cingular (no other carrier has it) since we did not get the less developed E62?