• Nokia N97: Revolutionary or Just Another Handset?

    Nokia N97: Revolutionary or Just Another Handset?

    Ashwin Yadav, Jul 29, 2009 1751 hrs IST

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"Nokia is doomed" - screamed the banner of a Nokia N97 review at Gizmodo, one of the more popular tech blogs these days. While the editors at Gizmodo might have gone a tad overboard with their crystal ball gazing, the N97 in general seems to have uncharacteristically split the consumer tech world -- or at least the consumer tech gurus commanding popular opinion, right down the middle. I say uncharacteristically because Nokia has historically been the strong, silent type - releasing scores of handsets across the entire price and feature spectrum with little or no fanfare; and in the process, controlling a clear majority of the global handheld market.




The N97 seems to have changed all that. At the very least, these opinions have certainly brought the Nokia fanboys out of the woodwork. A species not known to be particularly aggressive were now out there, getting their hands dirty in the kind of blog-wars that are attributed to the Microsoft-Apple rivalry. It would be nice and simple to dismiss the entire ruckus as an installment of the strained relationship that Nokia has had with the US market; more importantly with US carriers and US 'tech gurus'. But the problems Nokia faces with making any significant impact in the US are certainly not new and nothing in the launch of this handset suggested that the status quo was about to change in any significant way. On the other hand, Nokia seems to be trying to develop better relationships with carriers like AT&T as evidenced by the launch of the Surge recently. So that leaves us with the device itself.

Is the N97 an inherently bad device? Probably - other than a bit of time spent with the device at a Nokia store, I have very little hands-on experience to form any opinions. But let's for a minute assume that the N97 is indeed a bad device. The question is, how bad does one device need to be for it to mark the beginning of the end for an organization that, as per its latest results, sells more than 103 million mobile devices a quarter? How bad does it need to be for certain analysts to predict a halving of Nokia's market share from 40% to 20% by the year 2013?

Something just doesn't feel right. Is the N97 really the first nail in the coffin for Nokia -- as proclaimed by some analysts? If so, why the N97? Nokia has launched mobile devices by the truckloads, and not all have been shining bastions of innovation and craftsmanship. Is it evidently clear that this is the best that Nokia can achieve and it just doesn't hold up in the post iPhone, Android, Pre world? Or is it something else?

Let's take a closer look at some opinions of the device itself. As mentioned earlier, this is not a review - I'm just going to be looking at some of the key aspects of the device and the opinions that have been made on them.

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Nokia N97 Nokia smartphone Gizmodo blog N97



Discussion Board
(10) Comments
MD RAZA
,KOLKATA, on Oct 17, 2009 09:51 PM
I WOULD LIKE TO SAY ONE WORD "NOKIA IS BEST"
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Shreyash Lonkar
,Pune, on Aug 15, 2009 05:56 PM
I did not like the review honestly. Only the bad side of the N97 was shown. Practically it is one of the best high-end smartphones available right now. With a 32GB inbuilt memory, 5mp Carl Zeiss lens, Video Recording at 30fps, uploading it on the internet, A-GPS. You can go on and on. It also beats the iPhone 3GS by its performance, memory, specs. I was previously using iPhone 3G. I have got the N97 as soon it was in the market and i'm overwhelmed. It has an awesome physical keypad. The touch keypad would have been better. I hope Nokia solvs this problem by firmware upgrade. I think Nokia N97 beats every phone available in the market.
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Anonymous
,dd, on Aug 04, 2009 04:25 PM
bakwas phone
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Anonymous
,dd, on Aug 04, 2009 04:24 PM
bakwas phone
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Nokia Geek
,Helsinki, on Aug 01, 2009 09:26 PM
I am writing this comment on my N97. I think N97 is great. The physical keyboard and the physical dpad help web surfing and writing messages. Concerning the OS, I think the complaints center on the user interface of the preinstalled applications which do not yet have a fully consistent touch interface. I personally would like consistent interface that I could use solely from the physical keyboard.
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bossrulez
,banglore, on Jul 31, 2009 07:37 PM
This is not a balanced review at all, it is very clearly supporting/augmenting the N97 saying "although this feature is crap, it will suffice most users" ??? Nokia knows this and is relying on these kind of reviews and forgiving mentality to stuff their underpowered offerings down our throats. Nokia HAS to WAKE UP
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Kent Vogel
,, on Jul 31, 2009 07:04 PM
Through my occupation I have the privilege of using a wide variety of devices. I am currently using an N97 and absolutely adore it. Sure there are little quirks in the UI that could be bettter but if you really dig into the feature set and utilize them, you will find that the N97 has alot to offer. No it's not as user friendly as an iphone but come on folks, it's not an iphone. This is what some may call a thinking man's smartphone. I give Nokia a high five for it but do look forward to future firmware updates that may make the UI a tad smoother.
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sai gopal
,Hyderabad, on Jul 30, 2009 10:33 AM
Well said. A very balanced report afterall. i am using N97 and I have 5800 too. N97 surely is a hardware marvel. Everytime I open the QWERTY, it reminds me of just that. As a end user, it makes no difference to me with the processor speed. At the end. the user is happy. That's all it matters. Ofcourse, Nokia has to polish the UI. And like in 5800, the next software upgrades will help N97.
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sandy
,raipur, on Jul 29, 2009 07:23 PM
I think the biggest difference here if u compare iphone and nokia is the self life of the product how many of us might be still using a nokia phone launched 2-3 years ago,while as iphone are still same and popularly used
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Prabhat Ramesh
,Bangalore, on Jul 29, 2009 08:59 PM
That's because Apple doesn't have even 1/100th the models that Nokia..All they did was applied a few cosmetic changes and added a few new features...
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