Diaries of a Nokia Fan Boy

So a little while ago I’ve written about Nokia Surge that was destined for AT&T, and it seems that Rogers is about to snatch it up as well. The only exception is that Rogers is giving it the standard 4-digit Nokia branding, unlike AT&T that felt it was “too cool” for that.
The phone will be available for $89.99 on a 3-year contract, and $279.99 outright. Of course any common sense would quickly dictate that the 3-year contract alone costs $400, which is $120 more than the phone itself. In other words, if you like the phone, just buy it. Of course a little online snooping will show that WElectronics is selling it for $500, and eBay is only slightly cheaper.

Otherwise, the phone runs on Symbian S60 rel. 3.2, and supports HSDPA 850 / 1900, Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP, microUSB 2.0, 2MP Camera, and GPS with A-GPS. See GSMArena for full specs.

-Nokia FanBoy

via: MobileSyrup (read)

Nokia recently released a new phone specifically for AT&T: the Surge. Well I started wondering just what the market segment for the phone is, whether its something that’s actually required, and why it is not labeled as an N-series, especially since on first impression the Surge seems like the perfect candidate for that label.

Well after looking through its specifications it becomes clear that it is quite underpowered for the N-series, and is actually missing a couple features:

• 2MP camera, as opposed to 5MP+
• QVGA video, as opposed to VGA
• 2.5mm audio jack, as opposed to the standard 3.5mm
• No WiFi

On the other hand, there are plenty of reasons why this phone should be given the N-series label:

• Symbian S60
• GPS with A-GPS
• Full HTML browser with Flash support
• Innovative features and design (i.e.: QWERTY keyboard)
• Large body to fit some of the features

So then why is it that the phone is not given the N-series label?
Well the biggest reason is probably because this appears to be an AT&T exclusive, and may be re-branded later. Also, some of the features really are a killer for the high-end label: 2MP/QVGA camera, non-standard 2.5mm audio jack.

But what does that give us?
A phone that is clearly not media-centric, but includes some rather unexpected high-end features, such as GPS. Since this is a Nokia S60 device, Nokia Maps, Garmin and Google Maps will run without any issues, and AT&T added on their own Navigator solution as well.

This brings us to the main questions: What is the market segment and purpose of the phone?
The answer is not immediately apparent, since a smartphone with GPS and social capabilities would be expected to have a decent camera, however when we look at the price, both the purpose and market segment become clear. The main purpose is to bring portable, always available social medium to the masses. This means that every corner that could be cut, was; and the price reflects this: $79 after subsidies.

While I can understand the lack of a proper camera, since 2MP is plenty for pictures posted on Facebook, I do not agree with the removal of WiFi. Bringing constant social connectivity to the masses means bringing the price down as much as possible, but removing WiFi means that the users will then have to pay for cellular data, which is well known to be expensive. Of course, carrier subsidies can be increased if the carrier has reason to believe that the price of plans will go up with the sale of the phones, but one would be foolish to save $100 now just to have to pay that to the carrier in cellular data charges when spending more and getting WiFi would save money in the long run.
But I guess its true what Economics teaches us:

Money now is always better than money later

-Nokia FanBoy