Digitimes is reporting that magnesium case maker Catcher Technology has received a sizeable order from Nokia, and volume shipments began last month.
This is rather strange, because stainless steel seems to be the casing of choice for recent Nokia mobiles, including the Nokia 8800, the N-series, and even portions of the 6170.
Indeed, the last magnesium phone released was the Nokia 8890 (framed in magnesium), and the Nokia 8850 used a magnesium-aluminum alloy; but the Nokia 8800 is their present day equivalent, and was only very recently released. Using magnesium instead of stainless steel would have helped, purely because of the weight advantage, but surely no direct competitor/replacement is already in production?
Our best guess is that magnesium is being used for the internal chassis of the Nokia 770 tablet, but it is most unlike Nokia (or any other company) not to laud it's use of exotic materials. I suppose the Nokia 8890 and 8850 pages don't announce that either; instead focussing on the use of aluminum.
We hope we're wrong.
