Additional information on the new Nokia phones can be found here, if anyone's interested:
nokia.com
nokia.com
nokia.com
Also, Siemens recently put out a couple of PRs regarding a new GPRS model (S45), set to come to market in July, and a GSM-GPRS (900-1900)/TDMA (800-1900) quad-mode (S47 - no AMPS support) slated for a Q4 release:
siemens.com
siemens.com
To be honest, I wasn't very impressed with the Nokia GPRS releases. Don't get me wrong: I think the 8310, as well as the non-GPRS-supporting 3330, ought to be strong sellers. However, given the relatively tame nature of the upgrades Nokia provided to its handset line last year (save, of course, for the non-mass-market 9210), I figured that they'd use the 2001 GPRS releases to unload some heavy artillery. Perhaps a couple of phones with color screens, or a model with Epoc support, or a phone with a built-in MP3 player - something more than merely repackaging the 62xx and 82xx lines and adding Bluetooth and FM radio support, respectively.
Last year, sacrificing bleeding-edge functionality in the name of cost was definitely a good idea. This year, with the mass-production of phones containing support for packet-switched internet access becoming a reality, with Moore's Law having continued on its merry path for yet another twelve months, and with Ericsson (T68) and Siemens (S45) having stepped up the quality of their high-end mainstream offerings (in retrospect, the R380 and the SL45 were definitely too expensive to be considered mainstream items), waiting another year to provide some truly data-centric mainstream models could be a risky bet.
One theory that recently crossed my mind is that Nokia could be intentionally doing this in an attempt to make sure that W-CDMA rollouts will be successful. After all, the company does stand to be paid a fortune in W-CDMA infrastructure contracts should the technology roll out as planned, and making sure that there's a "wow factor" involved with the release of the first W-CDMA handsets would definitely help in making sure that this goal is attained. Also, as we all know, a number of carriers are already starting to have doubts as to how fast their 3G investments will pay off, and thus the release of W-CDMA phones that are, in the eyes of consumers, immediately able to stand out from their GPRS brethren would definitely help with regards to public perception of the technology, as well as the confidence placed by major carriers in its long-term prospects; and given the nature of the 3G prototypes Nokia continues to show on its site (http://www.nokia.com/press/nps_photo_archive/1,3009,future,00.html), as well as the commentary they've provided on the phone that they're set to release in Q3 2002, the idea may not be all that far-fetched.
Of course, if this theory turns out to have even a grain of truth in it, it would put an end to all those great conspiracy theories brandished by a group of investors in a certain company about Nokia wanting to intentionally delay the widespread proliferation of W-CDMA. Thus, speaking purely from a religious perspective, I'll completely understand if some readers prove unwilling to consider it :-).
Eric |
