New Nokia Devices Aim to Triangulate Apple

Posted by: Jack Ewing on August 26

Nokia (NOK) launched two new multimedia handsets Aug. 26 which can viewed be as warning shots at Apple (AAPL) rather than a salvo aimed directly at the iPhone. The two handsets, scheduled to go on sale in October, are the entertainment-oriented N85 and the style-oriented N79. Neither has a touch screen, instead using the keypad interface familiar to Nokia users. The frontal assault on Apple, the touch-screen product (or products) unofficially codenamed Tube, will come later this year.

But the two new handsets illustrate Nokia’s biggest strength as it answers Apple’s phenomenally successful assault on the smartphone market. More than newcomer Apple, Nokia has the research and development resources and the global distribution network to offer a much broader range of products aimed at distinct groups of consumers.

The N85, $665 before subsidies and taxes, targets gamers and voracious consumers of media. The device has features such as dedicated keys for playing games and an FM transmitter that lets you wirelessly play music tracks stored on your handset through a car radio. The N79, $520 before subsidies and taxes, is aimed at fashion conscious users, with a compact design and five interchangeable covers in different colors that, the Nokia press release assures us, are “cool.”

Actually, underneath the hood the two devices are very similar. Both have 5 megapixel cameras, web browsing, GPS navigation, and a host of other features that justly qualify the devices as miniature computers. The new devices also provide a glimpse of how Nokia will try to make money off services by embedding them in the device. Both handsets come with free N-Gage games and a three-month subscription to turn-by-turn navigation (which I recently tested in the N82).

Nokia’s strategy is to stuff its devices with technology and package them for market niches the company has established through exhaustive research. Then Nokia uses its massive logistics and marketing apparatus to push the products around the world. In fact, in one illustration of Nokia’s clout, it has recently surpassed Garmin as the largest maker of GPS navigation devices.

What Nokia hasn’t yet managed is to come up with a product that provokes the same kind of fanatic devotion as the iPhone. But when you have Nokia’s scale, maybe you don’t need to.