Nokia new N96 launches – is it the iPhone’s biggest threat?

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Friday, 26 September 2008 19:55

Your IT - Mobility

There’s even DVB-H digital TV reception and recording, making the N96 a portable digital TV, but there’s an Australian catch.

While DVH-B TV is being used and offered in some other countries, Australian authorities reportedly won’t have the required frequencies ready for DVB-H broadcasts for at least a couple of years, despite an earlier successful trial a couple of years ago.

If only our politicians were more organised and more digitally aware, instead of being politico-digilliterates, we’d be enjoying this feature today, instead of with a presumed N97 model in 2010.

Aside from the 2.8-inch LCD screen which N95 8GB owners already enjoy, with only a 2.6-inch screen on the N95, one thing I noticed using the N96 at the launch event was pressing the “options” soft key in different programs I was running. The top option was now a “Show open apps” entry on every options menu.

Selecting that option brought up a horizontal list of icons representing different currently running programs, letting you easily switch between them and back, or close them by selecting the desired program and press the “C” button to close any down, followed by a “yes/no” prompt to make sure you really want to close that program down.

Although this was always possible by holding down the “Menu” button on N-Series devices, the added ability to get there via the options menu makes it easier for more people to discover this is possible, and to them do it.

This subtle change thus brings multi-tasking to the fore, and will likely increase the amount of time N96 owners use its advanced features beyond simple phone calls, although this is already high.

This is according to new Emile Baak, the new Nokia Australia and New Zealand General Manager, who spoke at the Australian N96 launch event and shared some interesting stats on N-Series in general.

Baak noted that more than 10m N95 and N95 8GB devices had been sold, no doubt a subtle dig at Apple’s desire to sell 10m iPhones, a figure Apple hasn’t yet publicly acknowledged reaching.

Baak added that Nokia had sold over 60m N-Series and more than 10m E-Series devices were sold globally in 2007 alone, and that Nokia holds 48% of the market, while also claiming the “broadest portfolio” of Internet capable devices.

Baak then explained that studies had shown Nokia that only 12% of the time used with N-Series devices was used for basic communications, while the other 88% of the time used with the device was spent listening to music, taking and viewing pictures, sharing images and video with the web or others, engaging in social networking activities through the device, messaging, web browsing and more.

All of this was part of Nokia establishing its message that the N96 is as much for content creation, discovery, sharing, interacting and experiencing as it is with communications via voice, video or text, leading to Nokia’s new tagline: “The Web. Now Made by Hand”.

The new Ovi service, which allows online synchronisation of your digital media files, calendar, contacts and other selected “office docs” type files – but not your email – means you can share any content you create or capture with the N96 with a worldwide audience or just a few friends.

What’s one N96 surprise I’ve come across so far – and what else should you know? And what can you do if you have an original N95 and have a bit of N96 envy? Please read on to page 3.