We have to disagree with PC World's recent article, "Why Nokia's 'Tube' Is the iPhone's Biggest Threat," purporting that Nokia's 5800 will provide close competition to the iPhone. And our stance does not come from some blind reverence for Apple; we're talking about a basic understanding product designers should all have--the importance of emotion when it comes to people, objects, and purchasing decisions.
The article points out that the $390 price tag of the Nokia is okay because it's simfree. They also say the phone
...will feature the Nokia's Comes with Music bundle, which will allow users to freely download an unlimited number of songs from Nokia's Music Store over a year after the initial purchase.
...Nokia's 5800 Express Music also features a 3.2-megapixel camera, with autofocus Carl Zeiss optics and a dual LED flash. All these blow iPhone's 2006 style 2-megapixel-no flash camera out of the water. Also, Tube records videos at VGA quality (640X480px) and has a frontal camera for video calls, something that the iPhone can't do at all. In this category, it's clear who's the winner.
Really, it's not. No one buys the iPhone for the camera. And are there a lot of bands people like on the Nokia Music Store?
The Apple hype did help Apple to sell millions of iPhones, but Nokia sells over 500 million devices every year, out of which almost 100 million are smartphones. If we take in consideration brand loyalty and the other advantages Tube has over iPhone, we're about to see a very tight competition between the two.
We disagree. People like the iPhone because it's easy to use, simple, and for better or worse, it's considered "cool." People ditched brand loyalty to get their hands on the iPhone, and the insane store lines proved it. The Nokia may have better features, but when it sees wide release and the two phones really go head-to-head in the marketplace, I think we'll all have an opportunity to learn something about product design.
Two more things: 1) Let's pick this conversation up again in a few months, when sales figures start coming out, and 2) right now, what do you guys think?
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iPhone 550-600 Eur
Nokia 5800 330 Eur
Second, I'd like to note that every region doesn't have the same needs or adopted in the same ways different kind of technologies. (ie - As far as I know Americans do not "text" as much as Europeans and Europeans do not "browse" as much as Americans).
Then comes the factors needs and taste.
Personally, the only reason I choose Nokia is that I don't like to be "hanging" and paying always for..... i-something.
These are two good quality and good looking phones but unfortunately not comparable :)
PP - Greece
At no point do i degrade the iphone, i think its great for other reasons. I think nokia and the iphone pitch their phones at different markets. Nokia has always been feature focused and the iphone like all mac products looks great from a design perspective.
And if we are talking about clones, the LG viewty and the prada phone had touchscreens even earlier, some may say the iphone copied that.
And sure, lines were packed on the release of the iphone, why? because it was that cool, marketing from apple is that good, and everyone wanted to be an early adopter. But what happens when all the 'cool' people get the iphone, they will soon realize everyone has the same phone and again, it is time for change.
I think the tube is just the next step in handsets, perhaps the next trend. Chances are, a few months after that comes out, apple will come out with a newer and better handset.
Technology goes in a cycle and everything that comes out will aim to beat its predecessor.
No one wants to have the SECOND one...
Tube is the second one... Is the clone...
iPhone is the REAL thing...
People worry more about the status of their product, than about its technical features
I don't have the iPhone because it's way too expensive it you look at what it actually has. This Nokia looks like it has a more reasonable price and better specs than the iPhone so I will go and check it out once it hits the stores.
so the iphone fever might go well for the tube.. since ppl are already gung ho abt touch screen phones.. no onder the peepz at nokia thanked the apply guys!
cheers!
My blog rant: http://tinyurl.com/4m2tjt
And no-one buys the iPhone for its features. They buy it as the most usable phone ever. Even with DRM from Hell and a hideous price.
So in terms of sheer numbers, Nokia might just have what it takes to pull it off in these markets where it holds a hefty market share already, somewhere in the 70% range. iPhone sales in India in its first week of release were around 5000 units. Need I mention what minuscule percentage of the population that is? Even when taking only high income smartphone buyers into account?