Nokia has started shipping the N8 which will finally puts Symbian^3 into the hands of users. It also means that Nokia just hits the promised quarter 3 deadline, just.
Espoo, Finland -Nokia’s latest entertainment smartphone, the highly anticipated Nokia N8 with Ovi services, has started shipping. Customers who have placed a pre-order for the Nokia N8 in Nokia Online Shops and Nokia retail stores will be the first to receive their Nokia N8. Market availability will vary by country and by operator, with broad availability in the coming weeks.
“With the N8, and the new Symbian software, we are bringing a familiar, faster and more intuitive user experience to the world’s most popular smartphone platform. The Nokia N8 has received the highest amount of consumer pre-orders in Nokia history and we are thrilled to start shipments of the N8, the first of Nokia’s new Symbian smartphone range,” says Jo Harlow, Senior Vice President, Smartphones, Nokia.
“To appeal to today’s high-end buyers, smartphones have to be enjoyable, useful and beautiful. Ease of use, excellent multimedia performance and elegant design are all essential elements of the package,” says John Delaney, Research Director, IDC.
The first of a series of smartphones based on the new Symbian, the Nokia N8 is fast and easy to use and supports true multitasking, allowing users to run multiple apps simultaneously and switch between them easily. Dubbed the world’s best camera phone, the Nokia N8 lets you take the highest quality photos and shoot HD-quality videos in supreme clarity with the 12MP camera with Carl Zeiss optics. You can edit photos and videos on-screen and choose from multiple ways to share them; transfer large files to an external hard-drive with USB-on-the-go, or upload photos to social networks like Facebook, Twitter or RenRen straight from the homescreen. All this is delivered in a robust aluminum body in a range of vibrant colors with a real-glass 3.5″ AMOLED display.
The Nokia N8 has a black belt in entertainment. Its WebTV apps from channels like E! Entertainment, National Geographic and CNN and the intuitive music player inject an element of fun into idle moments. Plug the device to the home entertainment center to watch HD-quality videos from the big screen with full Dolby Digital Plus Surround Sound. The latest version of Ovi Store, available first on the Nokia N8, gives easy access to more apps – from social networking services like Foursquare to games like Need for Speed Shift or productivity apps like Tesco in the UK.
Like other Nokia smartphones, the Nokia N8 comes with free Ovi Maps walk & drive navigation in more than 70 countries worldwide, with no hidden costs. The latest beta release of Ovi Maps is also available for download from Nokia Beta Labs for the Nokia N8. It features visibility to public transport in 85 cities around the world, as well as real-time traffic, safety camera alerts, visibility to parking and petrol stations, and speed limit warnings.
Nokia’s press releases are laughably bad.
I’m no fan of SYmbian 3, even though I’ll bet getting the E7, but not sure which bit of the press release is “laughably bad”. But then again, most press releases are mostly airware
The first third of the release is pure corporate babble about how great the company is feeling about shipping the device followed by a brief lecture about what it takes to appeal to “today’s high-end smartphone buyer. Sorry, but this type of stuff is a pure switch off for journalists and sub-editors.
There is a little bit of meat regarding the N8′s features, but very little about how this is new or strikingly different to anything else Nokia is already offering. There’s also a bit of babble about “ease of use”, but no real explanation of what this means in practice.
Compare this to the first few paragraphs of Apple’s press release for the iPhone 4:
“SAN FRANCISCO—June 7, 2010—Apple® today presented the new iPhone® 4 featuring FaceTime, which makes the dream of video calling a reality, and Apple’s stunning new Retina display, the highest resolution display ever built into a phone, resulting in super crisp text, images and video. In addition, iPhone 4 features a 5 megapixel camera with LED flash, HD video recording, Apple’s A4 processor, a 3-axis gyro and up to 40 percent longer talk time—in a beautiful all-new design of glass and stainless steel that is the thinnest smartphone in the world. iPhone 4 comes with iOS 4, the newest version of the world’s most advanced mobile operating system, which includes over 100 new features and 1500 new APIs for developers. iOS 4 features Multitasking, Folders, enhanced Mail, deeper Enterprise support and Apple’s new iAd mobile advertising platform. iPhone 4 will be available in the US, UK, France, Germany and Japan on June 24, starting in the US at just $199 for qualified buyers with a two year contract.*
“iPhone 4 is the biggest leap since the original iPhone,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “FaceTime video calling sets a new standard for mobile communication, and our new Retina display is the highest resolution display ever in a phone, with text looking like it does on a fine printed page. We have been dreaming about both of these breakthroughs for decades.”
FaceTime is as mobile as your phone, so you can see your loved ones and friends anywhere there is Wi-Fi. Using FaceTime is as easy as making a regular voice call, with no set-up required, and you can instantly switch to the rear camera to show others what you are seeing with just a tap.”
Now, it’s not fantastic prose and there’s some typical Jobsian hyperbole, but it gets straight to the heart of the matter by describing some key new features and exactly how they will directly benefit users.
The rest of the press release continues in a similar vein, detailing each new feature and how each will benefit the user, with ease of use stressed at every point.
Apple sounds like it is genuinely excited by all the great new things the iPhone 4 can do, Nokia sounds as if this is just a tired rehash of what has gone before.
And what the heck are “visibility to public transport” and “visibility to parking and petrol stations”.
Sloppy work.
I wonder if this phone will be the start of Nokia’s comeback as a serious smartphone player…certainly looks the part.