THE COMPETITION: Speculations of the forthcoming Nokia N83 - HTC, it's time to come up with something really consumer-friendly!

Nokia has clearly become the new Sony of the smartphone area. While HTC, the most important manufacturer of current Pocket PC’s and Smartphones, seems to be just resting on their laurels and not coming up with anything really consumer-friendly incorporating consumer-friendly features common in “dumb” mobile phones (quality camera, gaming-friendly hardware (for example, hardware 3D accelerator), FM receiver, (comparatively) high-resolution screen, the ability to record calls), Nokia, the biggest competitor in the phone field, after having produced, in my opinion, clearly inferior models, seems to clearly have taken the lead in this area.

They have just (officially) announced the new N93 (see this blog post), and, now, speculations of another consumer/business-oriented model, the N83, has surfaced. It is, hardware-wise, exactly what next-generation Pocket PC phones should be. Too bad they run the Symbian operating system, which I consider inferior to Windows Mobile.

Nokia N83 Specs: Wowz!

This thread at mobile-review contains some really nice specs of the forthcoming Nokia N83 (unfortunately, the leaked pictures have already been taken down; they are still available at the NewMobile article):

- Series 60 3rd Edition
- Large (at least 2.5-inch) 352*416 pixels 16 million colour display
- Bluetooth 2.0
- MicroSD slot
- MP3 / ACC media playback
- FM radio with Visual Radio
- Featuring 5(!) megapixel shooter with Carl Zeiss optics, autofocus, mechanical shutter, and integrated flash and a VGA cam in front for videocalls
- GSM850/900/1800/1900 and WCDMA
- 802.11b/g for VOIP-calls
- 4GB Hard Disk
- USB
- Minijack(!) 3.5mm
- New nokia-style media control panel

(I’ve copied over the rumored specification without touching/editing it. This is why I’ve kept for example the ‘802.11b/g for VOIP-calls’ remark. I don’t think Wi-Fi will only be supported by VoIP. Note that ‘ACC’ has nothing to do with the well-known 'AAC'.)

Note that this NewMobile article, as has already been pointed out, (still) has some shots of the new device. It, however, has no comments. Tero Lehto’s related blog post may also receive some answers (Finnish only).

Built-in 4 Gbyte Hard Disk Drive: has Nokia gone mad?!

Of the spec, the 4GB hard disk has caught my eyes, knowing the inherent problems with the Palm LifeDrive and the plummeting Flash ROM prices (Flash ROM's can no longer be (significantly) more expensive than hard disks of the same size). Has Nokia gone mad with incorporating technology that has once proved to be a failure in the buggy LifeDrive? Sure I know the LifeDrive problems are mostly caused by the lack of RAM and the bad engineering (using the built-in hard disk for everything possible and not utilizing RAM for caching and heap at all); that is, it’s because of the flaky design of LifeDrive that is causing the vast majority of the problems, not the hard drive itself. With a hard drive, even when the device itself will be much better engineered than the LifeDrive, the hard disk in the N83 will easily become a nightmare compared to anything Flash ROM-based.

History is repeating itself?

Something similar has already happened once in the Pocket PC history. In the Summer of 2003, then-palmOne (now, Palm) has also gained a lead over the Pocket PC camp with the (then, revolutionary) T3 with its great, HiRes+ (480*320) screen. Jason Dunn, owner of Pocket PC Thoughts, has stated the following in his highly recommended article ‘Palm This, Palm That, Toshiba Might Throw in Their Hat?’:

“The Pocket PC once held the crown as the most innovative and cutting-edge platform in both hardware and software, and I want to see it re-take that crown from Palm. ... Pocket PC OEMs need to get creative, win the hearts and minds of consumers with sexy and innovative designs, and make Pocket PC hardware the most cutting-edge PDA platform out there.”

Exactly my sentiments!

Verdict

I can’t say anything else than Jason: HTC, wake up! Try to come up with some consumer-oriented PDA phone! Gaming, something more than a measly QVGA screen, FM radio, 3D gaming acceleration, quality cameras are a must! Don’t just rest on your laurels - it may prove lethal (as was the case with Palm OS)!