nokia n series and the usa.

[wabbit]

is it me or the n series is just never making it to a us carrier?

i'm sorta disapointed in this fact, the n97 when its to debute, looks like a sweet phone!

flash support, 32 gigs mem, etc phone looks hot! yet no us carrier carries any is it me or just nokia who dominates the market, is just left to sell like a 100 bux flip phone in the us?

[bbguy2]

as BGR put it, "we all know that Nokia couldn’t market a free space heater to an Eskimo here in the US."

[muqtada123]

what do u mean

[muqtada123]

i love nokia phones specially N series

[muqtada123]

Whats your matter that you got disappointed with N97?

[wabbit]

Originally Posted by muqtada123

Whats your matter that you got disappointed with N97?

that it wont come to the us under att or vz

[dc/dc]

The reason you will never see an N-Series phone sold by a carrier in the US is that the market does not exist. The N97 will likely cost well above $1000 when it is released. Even if a carrier subsidized that to, let's say, $500 with a contract. They still couldn't sell it.

Americans want free or extremely cheap phones. That's the bottom line. Carriers simply can't sell handsets for more than $300 on contract in this country.

[LuisT]

Originally Posted by dc/dc

The reason you will never see an N-Series phone sold by a carrier in the US is that the market does not exist. The N97 will likely cost well above $1000 when it is released. Even if a carrier subsidized that to, let's say, $500 with a contract. They still couldn't sell it.

Americans want free or extremely cheap phones. That's the bottom line. Carriers simply can't sell handsets for more than $300 on contract in this country.

Totally true. If only the N-Series was cheaper .

-Luis

[dc/dc]

Originally Posted by LuisT

Totally true. If only the N-Series was cheaper .

-Luis

Honestly, I hope they don't get any cheaper. Lower prices usually means lower quality.

[fiffer]

There are lots of quality issues with the Nokia N series. Mostly they're just about style but quality-wise and durability. Blackberry still has my vote.

[Drillbit]

Unlocked, you will find very high costs for Blackberries and HTCs either. In fact, they're not any cheaper than the Nokia N-series. The iPhone, when sold unlocked, isn't cheap too, it should be at least 600 to 700 hundred dollars for the 8 gig.

If you got phones of competitive quality being sold for $99 or $199, against $399 or $499 or $699, its no contest.

But then again, if you bought a prepaid phone, you are free from the tyranny of the contract. If somehow, you can't pay the remainder of your contract, your credit rating isn't affected. You can go month to month, and switch carriers. There are even countries that regulate, no locked phones.

This idea is very important for Asians and Europeans. The sheer freedom of not being locked to a contract and go week by week, month to month, on prepaid cards. If they don't like the carrier, they can easily switch carriers just by changing the SIM card. Or they can easily sell the phone to someone else, get a new phone and put their old SIM on it and works just like that.

That's how Nokia gets around with all their stores in Asia and Europe. Why the best place to find phones aren't with the carriers but with independent stalls and electronic stores that display all brands of phones like they're selling TV sets or cameras.

I'm pretty sure if you are buying for example, an HTC, unlocked GSM, like the Touch HD or Diamond or Touch Pro, these phones aren't cheap. In fact they're very expensive.

At the same time, to show that you carry a phone that is perceived as expensive, is a way to flaunt your social status. There is a lot of people who buy expensive smartphones just as a social status item, and use only 10% of the functionality. Though I gather even these people would use appointments, contact management, text and email as part of those most often used functionality since socialites tend to socially network extensively. And occasionally the camera, though the TV isn't that used as well as the browser, GPS and other stuff.

[wabbit]

Originally Posted by dc/dc

The reason you will never see an N-Series phone sold by a carrier in the US is that the market does not exist. The N97 will likely cost well above $1000 when it is released. Even if a carrier subsidized that to, let's say, $500 with a contract. They still couldn't sell it.

Americans want free or extremely cheap phones. That's the bottom line. Carriers simply can't sell handsets for more than $300 on contract in this country.

it would still be a nice option to carry, for people who want a high end phone. just my thought on it, i would spend 800 at att for a n series phone.

[dc/dc]

Originally Posted by wabbit

it would still be a nice option to carry, for people who want a high end phone. just my thought on it, i would spend 800 at att for a n series phone.

I wouldn't. I'd spend it at a third party so I could get a phone with no carrier bloatware.

[CoDudette]

Originally Posted by dc/dc

The reason you will never see an N-Series phone sold by a carrier in the US is that the market does not exist. The N97 will likely cost well above $1000 when it is released. Even if a carrier subsidized that to, let's say, $500 with a contract. They still couldn't sell it.

Americans want free or extremely cheap phones. That's the bottom line. Carriers simply can't sell handsets for more than $300 on contract in this country.

it's amazing how it works in the usa. in india, phones are not sold by carrier. most of my friends have unlocked bb's bought from different markets world over.

nokia's are some of the cheapest phones to buy, sony ericssons are expensive. Motorolas *shudder* are for the people who don't use phones for anything else except texting. *shudder*

you rarely buy phones on contracts here. its amazing how cheap they are when sold outright ;)

[dc/dc]

Originally Posted by CoDudette

it's amazing how it works in the usa. in india, phones are not sold by carrier. most of my friends have unlocked bb's bought from different markets world over.

nokia's are some of the cheapest phones to buy, sony ericssons are expensive. Motorolas *shudder* are for the people who don't use phones for anything else except texting. *shudder*

you rarely buy phones on contracts here. its amazing how cheap they are when sold outright ;)

That's how it's done in most of Asia and the Middle East. Buying a phone is a separate process from getting service, and I tend to prefer it that way. I've bought a lot of phones in Qatar, and they have phone shops on every corner with varying prices. All unlocked, all unbranded; although until recently there was only one provider in Qatar (QTel), so this didn't make a difference. Now that Vodafone is starting up, I fear that branding and locking may come into play. I found it to be the same in Singapore and South Korea. Tons of phone shops, competitive pricing between the shops, and you usually had to go somewhere else to get your service plan.

Slightly OT, but there is a mall in Seoul where there is an entire floor several hundred square meters in size dedicated to mobile phones. Heaven for me. I can't buy any there because they are all locked to the Korean carriers and don't usually have GSM, but it is always fun to look.

[Drillbit]

They probably read in Hangul too, so unless you can read that, those phones are of no use to you.

GSM phone shopping heavens happen in Hong Kong, Manila, Singapore, and Malaysia. We're talking of phones that read and write using alphabets and use English in menus and icons.

[dc/dc]

Originally Posted by Drillbit

They probably read in Hangul too, so unless you can read that, those phones are of no use to you.

GSM phone shopping heavens happen in Hong Kong, Manila, Singapore, and Malaysia. We're talking of phones that read and write using alphabets and use English in menus and icons.

Almost all Korean phones have English too, so that's no biggie.

Little India in Singapore has insane phone shops. I can't wait to visit Manila.

[CoDudette]

you can get ANY phone you want here. and i've had fones with arabic on them too.

[dc/dc]

Originally Posted by CoDudette

you can get ANY phone you want here. and i've had fones with arabic on them too.

I'm very jealous of that fact... :(

Do they have phones with Hindi? I've never seen one in all my travels.

[CoDudette]

Originally Posted by dc/dc

I'm very jealous of that fact... :(

Do they have phones with Hindi? I've never seen one in all my travels.

Yes they do.. you can even change the script on certain nokia's whereby you can have all your features/sms etc in hindi

[dc/dc]

Originally Posted by CoDudette

Yes they do.. you can even change the script on certain nokia's whereby you can have all your features/sms etc in hindi

I need to get one of those. I have two phones with Arabic and one with Chinese. A Hindi one would be boss.

I should try to find a way to visit my friend in Pune.

[CoDudette]

You should!!!!!! Pune's fun, not as fun as mumbai!! :P

[dc/dc]

Originally Posted by CoDudette

You should!!!!!! Pune's fun, not as fun as mumbai!! :P

I'm sure I can visit more than one place... Pune's just where he and his girlfriend live/work.

[Drillbit]

One reason why the N-series wasn't that successful, at least initially, was many versions was a bit flaky and slow. Felt like Nokia was sitting on their laurels. They cleaned up a lot after the N95, arguably the best of the N-series, and the N82.

The E series on the other hand, was no nonsense perfection. Its a much more focused line than the N series, focused on RIM I suppose. Nokia seems to be getting the hang of working with US carriers more and more, as shown by the E71x. Ugh, it only means they will end up with more or less an HTC/RIM/Samsung like marketing strategy, where you make and sell carrier specific phones.

[zero7404]

has this thread completely croaked ? maybe not, yet --

so the N97 is in fact available in the states. and it is in fact less than $ 1000.
reading up on the specs, i am quite impressed in the hardware. since i've been rocking blackberrys for about 3 years now, the platform for me is a well oiled and used machine.

since rim isn't really active in delivering any 'serious' overhauls of their OS's....maybe in a year i will jump over to an N97. aside from the many features both bb and nokia phones share, how does nokia's Symbian 60 hold up in the multimedia department ?

does it support .avi and .m4a/.mp4 playback ?

i like how it'll allow you to update your phone's OS OTA regardless of carrier.

any thoughts ?