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Shipment of the Nokia N900 series which happens to be the latest version of the mobile based computer on open source Maemo 5 software has begun. The Nokia N900 will be available in stores this month been November 2009 at an estimated retail price of EUR 500 ($750) excluding subsidies and sales tax.

The Vice president of Nokia N series, Jose-Luis Martinez, says “The N900 has generated a lot of interest since its public launch in August, which has been reflected in the device preorders. What is exciting is the Maemo software, which takes its cues from the desktop computer and offers a full browsing experience like no other handset. We believe the Nokia N900 will be a very compelling device for people who are passionate about technology”.

Nokia had lent out 300 pre-production units of the N900 to the open source community in the Maemo Summit in October to get more feedback from the community so as to enable them provide the best user experience with this device. The N900 is known to be Nokia’s first mobile phone product to run on Linux software.

The Nokia N900 offers a powerful ARM Cortex-A8 processor and up to 1GB of application memory. It offers users the opportunity of surfing the web as they would have done using any computer and keep application windows open simultaneously on the dashboard. It also holds a 32GB in bit storage to hold quite a number of songs or 40 hours of DVD-quality video. The memory can as well be extended up to 48GB with an external microSD card. It comes with a 5-megapixel Carl Zeiss camera which automatically shows pictures and videos where they were taken.

The Nokia N900 will be initially available in Europe, Russia, North America and Middle-East.

Nokia Nokia-N900

Massive demand for the Maemo 5 Mobile device has hindered Nokia from the launch of the Nokia N900. Based on information obtained from the ever-excellent NokNok.tv, the wait for this mobile device will have to be extended by a week especially if you haven’t pre-ordered the Linux-based Maemo device. And so it is definitely good news for the manufacturer of this device as there is a great likelihood that demand outweighs the stock available.

There had been massive sales of this mobile device from Nokia’s online store and even Nokia stores across the UK which has definitely imparted on the supply of this device.

Nok Nok further said “Working on a strict first-come-first-served basis, anyone who has already pre-ordered the Nokia N900 should receive their device starting from today.”

Now, one will only wonder why there is so much influx for this new device, the most likely answer may be due to the fact that the device runs on the Maemo 5 Operating System and supports the ARM Cortex A8 processor. It also has 32 MB of RAM and can compete reasonably with devices from giants in the field. The device isn’t cheap and sells for about £449 and yet sim free.

Tech radar also added “We disagree with Nokia that this is more a mobile computer than a phone – it’s a smartphone and a very good one at that.”

“We’re looking forward to seeing how well it performs in practice, but early indications show Nokia might have just brought out an OS to save its skin in the nick of time,” concluded Tech Radar.

Nokia Nokia-N900

Nuance’s T9 Nav mobile search and discovery application has now been released to Nokia users through the Ovi store. As soon as the application is downloaded users can easily browse through to stored songs, games and possibly saved websites from their home screen. This is possible by imputing the first few corresponding letters of the application, just as is usually done for predictive text.

You can access games via the T9 Nav bar by typing 4, 2, 6 (g, a, m) or Facebook with 3, 2, 2 (for f, a, c). 4, 2, 6 corresponds to the first few letters for ‘game’ while 3, 2, 2 corresponds to ‘Facebook’. 2, 6, 9 for (a, m, y) and will bring up any songs by Amy Winehouse present in your mobile phone.

Nuance alleges that T9 Nav saves the average person 67 percent of completion time by avoiding monotonous clicks after clicks to access the menu.

NuanceT9 Nav is available for all standard 3 x 4 keyboard of S60 third edition. It costs a cheap sum of £4 and can be purchased from the Ovi store for Nokia phones.

Nokia Nuance-T9-Nav, Ovi-Store

I am fortunate to not be a Nokia E71 user. The E72 is a great phone and having its predecessor would make justifying a new phone purchase hard. My deal with this phone is that the E71 is a really good device, but the E72, adds a few upgrades. Think of the E72 as an E71.5 because the E72 is practically a clone of its predecessor in the e-series.

This means that if you are already using the E71, do not bother upgrading as you already have most of the features. The sad part is that the current cost of the E72 is just barely higher than that of the E71 and the extra hardware is worth more than the difference. As with any form of technology, owners of the original model did not get a bad deal; during its release, the E71 was already a great purchase that offered an excellent hand set, useful features and at a reasonable price.

I have not yet actually tried the E72 first hand, but I have seen several reviews of the E72 and from what I have read, this mobile phone packs quite a punch. As I said, the original E71 was already a great device to begin with, it had a fast processor, a 2.36 inch screen, Bluetooth and all the usual smart phone features.

The E72 takes this up a notch by adding in more internal memory, a much faster processor, a better position for the 3.5mm audio jack, and upgrading the 3 mega pixel camera up to 5 mega pixels. Now that is an improvement. The thing you should remember here is that despite the upgrades, it does not justify shifting from the original E71 if you already have it. Get this device if you do not have either of the two.

Nokia Nokia-e72

I am truly impressed with Nokia these days, ironically it is not because of a new mobile phone model. Instead, the Nokia device that has totally captured my attention is the Nokia Booklet 3G. This impressive little laptop combines the latest in mini laptop hardware and some interesting 3G features. The most interesting feature is that you can connect to 3G HSDPA network and stay connected better than on a wireless network.

It’s small and will compete with Asus’ Eee PC and the MSI Wind in terms of size, but it leaves the competition far behind in terms of hardware capabilities. Another great feature is the HDMI output port on the left side of the laptop.

If you are wondering, yes, this is Nokia’s first laptop device. In fact, this first and only attempt is showing that Nokia has been doing its research before jumping into a new industry –and they could not resist but including a few mobile phone specialty as well. The result is a well designed laptop that is not only powerful in terms of hardware, but is also practical in terms of size and features. The only thing that is not so practical will be the retail price. With the current specs, we certainly doubt this device will be on the same price range as other laptops of its size.

If you are wondering, this Intel Atom powered laptop will be using the new Windows 7 Ultimate operating system. The great thing about Windows 7 is that it combines the practicality and stability of Windows XP while adding in the aesthetic flair and stylized design of Vista. The bottom line is that we are getting a great hardware and operating system combo that practically sets the new standard for high end mini laptops of this generation.

Nokia Nokia-booklet-3g

When the Finnish company finally admitted losing its decade-held lead in the mobile phone industry, the public might have pointed a finger at the economic recession. But truth is, Nokia have had the fiercest competition and seemed to have played the game wrong. Nokia’s 41% share of the converged mobile device market was reported to have dived down to just 35% after just four months.

For starters, the introduction of smartphones from Apple, Samsung, LG and HTC bit a large portion of Nokia’s over 40% following. Plus, consumers now prefer the most available touchscreen gadgets from other manufacturers like Blackberry and Motorola, among others. Even with the later release of the Nokia N97 smartphone, the Finnish company was already sliding in the market.

With consumers careful about switching to more expensive deals due to the economic slump, Nokia was playing it safe, shipping some 108.5 million units in the third quarter this year, some 5% up from the previous quarter, but noted 8% down for the same period in 2008.

Ollie-Pekka Kallasvuo, Nokia chief executive, spoke of the industry’s performance as a whole which resulted to the reported loss. He said that their company would have marked more sales in devices and smartphones but the constraints of the industry hit them as well. The selling price for the second quarter in 2009 was only €62, down by €10 for the same period last year.

The industry analysts, however, don’t see it that way. Instead, they point Nokia’s loss with the fact the Finnish company hasn’t come out with an iPhone competitor and its release of N97 seemed too overrated. As of September this year, there was no noted increase in the sales of Nokia’s recently unveiled smartphone device. Even with Nokia’s pronouncements of releasing four new touchscreen phones, the analysts insisted it will merely increase volume but not value.

For more related information, click here: guardian.co.uk

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