Nokia set up the Nokia Nseries N90 Blogger Relations Blog (N90 blog) about a week ago.
With the tagline "Here you will find blogger and media information that you can repurpose and utilize in your blog postings about the N90," the site was launched just before the Nokia N90's US launch - in RitzCamera stores for the low low price of $399.00, with a t-mobile account... (continued)
Nokia set up the Nokia Nseries N90 Blogger Relations Blog site (N90 blog) about a week ago.
With the tagline "Here you will find blogger and media information that you can repurpose and utilize in your blog postings about the N90," the site was launched just before the Nokia N90's US launch - in RitzCamera stores for the low low price of $399.00, with a t-mobile account. (We're not being sarcastic here. $399.00 is not a bad price to pay, and lower than the N90's price in many other countries.)
Why t-mobile? The Nokia N90 has not been customized for the US market, hence it does not have support for GSM 850 Mhz, and the only US operator which uses GSM 1900Mhz extensively is T-mobile. Cingular uses 1900Mhz too - but coverage is patchy. (We're pretty sure about this, but if you're looking to buy the phone, please bring your SIM card to go test - or use T-mobile.) Also remember that while the N90 is a 3G phone, it will never work as such in the US, even after operators launch their 3G networks, because a different frequency is used. (US operators are rolling out 3G/HSPDA on the 1900Mhz band instead of 2100Mhz.)
A blog post by Steve Olsen resulted in a response from the N90 Blog which revealed that the Nokia N90 was indeed a Nokia public relations effort, for the US market. We must say here that this is truly an innovative PR solution. For the cost of sending out 48 Nokia N90 phones, a Six Apart - Movabletype account, and paying it's primary blogger Andy Abramson (I'm guessing here), the N90 Blog is now the top hit in a google search for "N90 blog", 15th in google search for "N90" and has lots of technorati links. All in a week!
So - the N90 blog's quest to generate discussion is on course, and it's objective stance; linking both good and bad comments, is laudable. (A rather comical example of this is this post about the "blogger" HowardForums - Andy! Howardforums is a web forum - it's not a blog!)
The question is - will this be enough?
We love Nokia's phones (obviously), but as we've written previously, the Nokia N90 is little bit of an under-performer; too large for the functionality it provides, particularly because rival phones seem to outperform it in terms of photo-taking even though it's key distinguishing feature is supposed to be a high quality camera lens. While we still maintain that it is one of the most future-proof of the Symbian phones now available, due to it's support of the new resolution standard for Symbian 9.1, the fact is that in the US market the N90 is even less functional than elsewhere - due to the lack of 3G.
So - while this effort will undoubtably generate buzz, we don't know if the buzz is giong to translate into actual sales of the Nokia. The bloggers with the phones are almost definitely going to make at least a few good comments, because the Nokia N90 is fundementally a good product, but the main beneficiary of the buzz will be photo-capable mobiles in general; and this is likely to provide gargantuan benefits to one of Nokia's key competitors - Sony Ericsson. It's w800i music phone, with a tiny form-factor, 3.5mm headphone plug support and autofocussing 2.0 megapixel camera, is almost in a league of it's own for music/photos, and while it does have the same reception issues as the Nokia N90 in the US (i.e. GSM 1900Mhz support only) it's only real disadvantage as compared to the N90 is the lack of a smartphone OS.
And of course, our current favourite compact digicam, the Canon Powershot SD450 will produce better pictures for less than $399.00.
Perhaps Nokia's intention is simply to make the http://n90.bloggercomm.com/ site highly visible, and to just generate buzz about all it's N-series products. That is not a bad idea in and of itself - and we're sure that this effort will eventually reap dividends.
It's an exciting time for Symbian enthusiasts, with the Nokia N80 just around the corner, and a N90 replacement seemingly in the works.
