Nokia N97 sells two million units in three months, Nokla sells two dozen
By Joseph L. Flatley 
posted September 4th 2009 5:13PM
posted September 4th 2009 5:13PM
Well, maybe Nokia recently announced a 66 percent yearly drop in Q2 profit. And perhaps N97 reviews have been, how we say, less than stellar. But there definitely seems to be a fan base for the handset: according to Mobile News, sales of both this guy and the 5800 XpressMusic combined to total 10 million in the last 10 months, with sales for the former adding up to a whopping two million since its launch three months ago. In fact, half of the XpressMusic sales were generated since the launch of the N97 -- certainly suggesting that the younger sibling successfully raised the company's profile and brought its fellow handset along for the ride. Does this make Nokia the "undisputed leading player in the smartphones space," as the company's chief executive Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo put it? By sheer volume of devices, perhaps -- but mindshare continues to be a problem that we're guessing they're eager to see if Maemo 5 and the N900 can solve. The CEO of Nokla could not be reached for comment.
[Thanks, David D]
[Thanks, David D]
Yeah, it's not like this is the widest read tech blog in the world or anything.
I think they were trying to contact NOKLA instead of NOKIA
So you are saying that he should up whole night just to please blog popular in the least important market for his corporation? These guys who post stuff like "there definately seems to be fanbase".... real insight. Like zimbabwean journalist in 1969 discovering that there are people on planet earth who like The Beatles.
Are you retarded? Nokla is not Nokia.
Click on the link. The joke obviously went way over your head.
You're retarded.
Um..that says CEO of NOKLA, not CEO of NOKIA.
He was joking, talking about Nokla, the KIRF manufacturer from China, not Nokia from Finland.
Rauha = Eurotrash FAIL
Here at engadget we prefer to ignore numbers that state real world popularity and simply state that our position about what product is dominant is clearly the prevailing opinion.
Come on guys, clearly the N97 has issues as all reviewers pointed out, but you can't argue with the numbers. Let's clean up the editorializing a bit here.
Just so I make sure I'm understanding you correctly, we should revise our opinion of a product to reflect its sales volume?
@ Chris Ziegler
No but can you please stop throw all these little witty (yawn) jabs at "everything but the iphone"...even in unrelated topics.
...it is starting to get reeeeeally tiresome.
Yeah, I'm inclined to agree with Po. I do not see how the company has an issue with its "mindshare" if it's selling that well. I mean, Nokia is number one buy a very healthy margin. Perhaps in America this issues exists - although I haven't really heard of it beyond Engadget - Nokia isn't associated with durability, usability, etc...however, abroad it certainly seems to be.
Po, you accuse Engadget of ignoring numbers but you skip over the first link in the story in a bit of ignorance yourself - http://www.engadget.com/2009/07/16/nokia-cuts-market-share-targets-as-q2-profits-plummet/
Nokia is fighting an uphill battle these days, and 2 million phones in 3 months is probably about the largest sales:time ratio the N97 is ever gonna have. Be realistic. Nokia does not have the focused product line that Apple does with their phones, nor the advertising, nor the diversity in apps. The N97 is an old paradigm. Nowhere near the amount of people are talking about N97s on the train with other N97 owners, asking about apps. Few devs are gonna work on that thing like they are for the iPhone, Pre or Blackberrys. It has no momentum.
Where can you get the ipone?
If you couldn't reach Nokla's CEO, try Nckia - I've hear he is easier to get in touch with. The sales numbers show that the consumers are voting with their money and N97 is too advanced for engadget reviewers.
nok nok shell.
"But there definitely seems to be a fan base for the handset"
Thanks for not making it look like you completely hate Nokia in this thread, Engadget =).
That line was talking about Nokla.. you even copy/pasted the word Nokla.
Nokla hasn't been doing any press events recently, that I'm aware of.
Huh?
I missed free N97 giveaway while 2 million units were, basically, given away???
Because I can't imagine a sane individual chocking up 500+ euro/pounds for that device. Its great and all but 500...
That's the Nokia Store in Regent Street, London. Directly opposite, is the Apple Store. :)
and directly across the Apple store, is everyone walking into the Nokia store xD.
Well, in my experience, N97-to-iPhone ownership is roughly 2 to 1.
I'm serious, I've seen more people touting N97s then I have iPhones.
Where do you live?
Australia.
I have yet to see an N97 in the wild during my commutes and general living in London. (honestly)
No doubt I'll see plenty now, lol.
I saw one in Fenchurch street today (classy lady typing as she walked briskly by) but I have to say that iPhone's are quite pervasive in the City - even the builders have it. I hate that most are housed in an ugly casing though - makes it look so ugly it puts sin to shame.
iPhone users clearly have no class - they're what we call chavs :-). Ok, ok , only kidding.
I'm into geek not chic so the N900 will do for me !.
"I'm into geek not chic..."
Geeks go for the useful and tweaky apps that are available on the iPhone platform.
You've obviously never heard of 'Contractual subsidy'.
You know, like how you can get a 199 iPhone and gloat about how cheap it is?
thanks you
http://www.biranda.net
Walk a little further east from Regent Street and you can reach NOKLA's flagship store in Berwick Street, Soho, among the stalls of vegetables, used books and tacky lighters
Seriously, all the chavs love an iPhone - SE and Nokia are classier
Nokia isn't as popular in America as it is overseas because Americans don't buy unsubsidized phones. Even tech saavy people in America don't buy unsubsidized phones. And Nokia for some reason either hasn't aggressively pursued the carriers to be subsidized, or have been denied from being subsidized.
They are trying to change this, but they need to do a little bit better job. The E71x for instance is just horrible compared to the regular E71 (from what I understand). Nokia let AT&T gimp the hell out of that phone, making it unusable for someone who wants to run unsigned apps.
That, and Nokia doesn't seem to understand what Americans at least want as far as phones go. Nice cameras don't matter when you have a slow phone with a bad keyboard and resistive touchscreen. Like it or not, people want good touchscreens and are willing to ditch physical keyboards to get them. Which sucks since I love physical keyboards, but that is the way the market is unfortunately.
Anyone remember the Nokia v Qualcomm legal battle?
If Nokia lost the case they would have had to pay Qualcomm a colossal amount based on the number of Nokia phones in circulation in the US. However both agreed an out of court settlement and now Nokia is free to enter the US Market without the threat of massive legal costs.
(Cross posted from the Engadget Mobile post)
I find it interesting that you say Nokia doesn't have much of a mind share. Outside of the US, Nokia most definitely has a very significant mind share. To the point where its getting frustrating for those of us using US services that seem to only take notice of Nth American produced cellular platforms such as Android, the iPhone and the canuc Blackberry.
Nokia has a huge S60 user base and is still selling more smartphones than all its competitors. Your own site stated that for 2007, Nokia sold nearly 80 million Smartphones. (http://bit.ly/2VvcMC) RIM only broke the 50 million mark for the entire lifetime of the company not that long ago (http://bit.ly/lQcFu) and Microsoft was only shipping about 20 million phones a year (http://bit.ly/yoR0w) 6 months ago.
I am sure there are a lot of more recent stats available now. But the point is, outside of the US, the Android and iPhone devices have no where near the mind share the US-centric bloggers and tech reporters and technology companies seem to attribute to them.
And regardless of what you think about the S60 platform and how "old" it is, there is no denying that it is a very stable platform offering features and capabilities that other companies are only just now catching up with, but that have been available to Symbian devices for many years already.
Hell, the iPhone had to go through 3 major and several minor revisions before it even got MMS, and now its such a big deal its actually making headlines. I was sending photos via MMS on a Nokia 7650 back in 2001 and audio clips even earlier than that on older phones.
Outside the US, Nokia is still at the top of the class. Admittedly their US strategy has been pretty poor, but given the state of the US cellular system (how many different network types across how many different frequency ranges?) can you blame them for taking a while to turn their attention towards that market?
Are you sure Nokla only sold two dozen? Unfortunately, there are more than 24 suckers in this world as it looks like Nokla still remains in business.
Nokia perhaps doesn't have the mindshare in US-centric tech blogs, but if they're selling volume, presumably they have the mindshare in the minds of the people buying phones?
and the new firmware due soon will bring consistent kinetic scrolling to the entire phone (shown at IFA) so my personal biggest issue will be fixed.
And then all those loyal N97 discover that their top-of-the-line phone, has suddenly been replaced by the N900
As part of Nokia's latest "Symbian is yesterday's news" campaign.
C.
Nokia said at NW09 that they see the N900 as the 4th generation (out of 5) of the 770 and expect there to be one more generation before it is in its final form as they envision it.
They also said the N900 is targetted at an entirely different market. They are essentially running 3 different cellular lines. Phones (S40), Smartphones (S60) and what they're currently calling "Internet Computers" (Maemo.) The Maemo devices such as the N900 are not likely to be marketed as a phone. In fact, Nokia has gone to great efforts to downplay those features, mentioning them in passing only, and has hyped up the internet experience on the devices. They go to great effort to point out the Mozilla technology of the browser and so on. S60 devices are running a Webkit based browser not that different to Android and Safari. In fact, many iPhone web apps will run on the N97. Possibly the 5800 as well, although I don't have a 5800 to test it with.
If they keep their promises on the N97's v2.0 firmware in October, I think most of the vocal minority currently complaining will be happy with the N97. One thing I do find funny is that many of those that bad mouth the device have had very little experience using the device or spent very little time with it as their primary phone. I'd challenge anyone to spend a week (or two) using only the N97 and then decide if it really is so bad. 90% of the problems people complain about are software related anyway. So can be easily fixed.
I'm happy with the device. I won't say no to kinetic scrolling and a more coherent UI, or the freed up memory promised in v2.0 firmware, but the device has replaced my E71 (which replaced an E90) and I'm happy with it.
Dear Engadget Dudes,
I really like your site. I also appreciate your editorial style which I would describe as brutally honest with a good sense of humour.
What I don't appreciate is your anti-Nokia bias. It really undermines your credibility and comes of as arrogant/creepy/embarrassing/pathetic - take your pick.
I know that a lot of other readers feel this way and I would hate for such a great site to be damaged by this issue.
Perhaps time to re-take your ethics 101 class?
Don't bother asking for evidence for the accusation of bias - just read and listen to your own material.
All the best.
Espoo888
@CJ
You know, people like that always entertain me. US of A is not the whole world. Not everywhere you can buy a phone for 1 euro, there are countries where you can't get a subsidy on a phone no matter the kind of contract you have.
Like, Russia.
No, I'm not from there :P
PS: average price of N97 in my country is $772 (75 offers). With average salary $205 per month in April this year. Data from government statistics, internet shops. Not everyone can afford it.
I'm just saying if we could, we'd bump up those sales by another million or two xD
The question is how much of the world would buy the iphone if it actually sold in other countries. Its easy to say Americans are snobby and such when we are the only ones that can buy it, i believe Apple's same marketing strategy would work in other countries.
@Ryujin
If it sold in other countries?...
Italy
http://www.blogfromitaly.com/iphone-availability-italy/
http://www.slipperybrick.com/2008/04/iphone-italy-unlocked/
UK
http://www.apple.com/uk/iphone/buy/
World ≠ USA
My girlfriend works above that store!
That's a ghastly shop display