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]
I want that giant one in the window. How much does that model cost?
Anyway, I don't get why Nokia doesn't sell more in the US. I have an older Nokia 3220. I've beaten the crap out of it and it still works, plus the battery life is excellent. They have great build quality.
"I don't get why Nokia doesn't sell more in the US."
Because Americans want smoke and glitter.
If you don't have a great marketing campaign, public image (comes from marketing), or reasonably priced products, you won't do good in America.
I think they lost a lot of the USA market when they didn't have flip phones during the RAZRs success? I think everyone wanted flip phones in the US while everywhere else candybars were the rage.
Its because America is not poor like the rest of the loser 2nd worlds that buy these phones...
While we are buying high end RED cameras just to shoot our weddings.. loser countries have people shotting weddings using Nokia phones LOLZ!!!
AHAHAHAH
The answer is very simple. Nokia phones tend to be overpriced, especially their smartphones.
Their smartphone software is slow with horrible UI. That's why they only do well with their
feature phones which doesn't rely much on software. Although I have owned Nokia phones in
the past, I wouldn't buy another one from them.
@Dafrety: that's just a normal N97 - now you know why they had to design the Mini.
coz' you know the "snobbery" or the "snob value" that's paramount in US
@Chocolate Express
Americans will rarely pay $699 for a phone. That is the issue.
Well.. Americans usually dont spend $600 for their Apple iphone at one go.. but pay $1200 for the same over a period of 2 years when someone like ATT comes and tell them it is cheaper this way.
Also most of the phones you get subsidized in US (maybe except the Iphone/Blackberry) are worst performing models elsewhere. ATT had Nokia N75 and some express music phone which were utter failures elsewhere, most of the problem is because of the monopoly the carriers have over phones.
"mindshare"
Yes most companies would rather have mind share rather than market share LOL.
hahahahaha!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
"Guys, I know we dominate the market and are rolling in cash... but those editors over at engadget.com just don't give us enough respect!!!"
Mindshare warms houses, fills bellies and keeps shareholdes happy. Profits and marketshare are for sissies.
Some companies could care less about market share... Its all about making money. Look at apple: they have much better mindshare than microsoft, those adds are genius, and almost all average consumers consider the mac to be some amazing product. They could care less about marketshare, their revenue is through the roof.
Looks like Josesh L. Flatley is a neutral guy. And really this post makes me feel good about that Engadget-Nokia hate issues.
"but mindshare continues to be a problem..."
Only if you're an Engadget 'journalist'...
this entire thread of comments has ROFL written all over it.
i'll have to agree with Brendon here, Apple probably has the best advertising of all computer companies so they convince people to pay a lot more for a similar product. so they can have the same profit as others with a much smaller market share.
I see those Nokia N97 everywhere in store around Asia, more than the Apple Iphone. But most people i see still use iphone more than nokia these day.
Man, I had to read that post title a few times before I realized it said "Nokla."
hahah
Nokia vs Nokla
With a shit site like that. You're never going to have the money for an iphone 3gs.
Who, with a sound mind could buy a knockoff? Maybe this pothead I know.
POTHEAD: "Dude, its the same thing"
ME: "Its a cheap knockoff"
POTHEAD: "But look, it looks identical"
ME: "That doesnt mean its gonna be the same hardware and software inside the unit"
POTHEAD: "Well, I'm gonna buy it, its only half the price of the iPhone"
ME: "good luck"
-2 months later-
POTHEAD: "man, it keeps crashing, and it looks like hell."
ME: "told ya"
So the pothead bought the iPhone after all?
Yep
This doesn't surprise me at all. Nokia has a solid hold on Asia and Europe. I can only see sales improving as the markets improve...
If Nokia is located in "Espoo"... Where is Nokla?
Worspoo, China.
Some of the criticism of the N97 is unjustified. The industrial design is not too bad. The physical controls, slider and general form factor are pleasing, ergonomic and practical. It even has a cover for the camera - which itself produces very good images and video. The software, which has born the brunt of the flak can easily be fixed through software upgrades - of which Nokia have promised for mid September. If it wasn't for the N900, which blows everything else out there out of the water, the N97 may well prove to be a sleeper hit for Nokia, as people realise that other more trendy but less smart phones based on proprietary OSes will eventually show their weaknesses by being impossible to upgrade within what can be a 24 month contract.
If Nokia can improve the consistency of the GUI on the N97, they will render most of the flaws in the device obsolete overnight.
They also need a new keyboard. Single worst feature of an otherwise great phone. It's flatter than Kate Moss in a wetsuit.
That's the main reason I got rid of mine. Software can always be updated (Nokia are pretty good about fw upgrades on their top end devices) but the keyboard had no response whatsoever. Not like the 3gs is any better in that regard but at least the autocorrect helps a lot
Same here. Sw can be updated, but you can never get past the lack of GPU and 128 NAND RAM. The 640x320 res was beautiful, but even @janole of Gravity has said that without a GPU there is just not enough horsepower to build smooth UIs for that res. It's the exact same problem as the N810 where the device could barely drive its own display, and I've seen where that takes you, and to solve it you make the N900.
5800 and N97 numbers where announced in Nokia World
Here we go again for the 100th time :D These prices are unlocked prices. N97 is free with 2 years contract from Voda for example.
Iphone 3gs REAL price is about £600 and N97 is about £480. It's just that in NA carrier comes first and then the manufacturer.
Nokia needs to launch a 5 or 5.5 or 6 inch tablet. The display should be flush with all four sides of the form factor (so it is not any larger than it has to be). If the iPhone display was flush with all four sides .. it would be a 5 inch display (go ahead measure it diagonally with a ruler) ... and the iPhone easily fits in a pocket. A six inch display would be only slightly bigger and would allow an on screen keyboard that doesn't cover most of the display.
Haha, you guys give Nokla too hard of a time... =)
The funny thing is that Nokla probably sells a pretty high volume of phones even as bootleg as it is. They got a pretty large market after all.
Cool! Engadget admitted that just because they sell the most phones, that doesn't make them the best. What about Apple and the iPods? ITS THE SAME DAMN THING TOOLS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!@@@
this guy obviously isn't the pothead. Mellow out man.
couldn't agree more
Question is what are Nokla's profits vs amount sold compared to Nokia =P
I can bet that Nokla's RnD spending is a fraction of 1% of Nokia's.
Dude, that's a production model N97 Mini in the window. The original N97 wouldn't fit.
The reflection in the nokia store shows the Apple store right across the street...no seriously
Yep, they're both on Regent Street...
Yes, heaven forbid that two or more stores that sell similar wares should be on the same street.
In fact, there are probably a few more too, within the, let's call it a 'District', and in this 'District', people go if they want a particular product.
But I digress, utter nonsense!
Will see how N900 does sales wise. One thing Nokia NEEDS to do is advertise it heavily in Europe and Asia, especially the UI part. Don't think it will be N95 like +17 million seller even as N95 costed more, but if all done right it could actually come Nokias main seller in the smartphones for this Christmas.
X6 will need the same because the price will seem quite heavy compared to it's predecessor 5800, but they need to get the message down that you got the unlimited amount of music to download with that price. What videos i have seen about X6 and it's capacitive screen it looks really good device actually. X6 is just these phones where Nokia got real potential to get their services out as the comes with music has till now been option for phones now with X6 there's no other versions than just the Comes With Music version.
I still want to see how the n900 behaves as an actual phone. Most of the videos floating about show the browser and dashboard mainly. I'd like to see more phone functions such as sms, dialer, log, etc.
That N900's starting to look really good. I used to be a total Nokia fanboi but since they didn't keep up with the whole interface revolution thing I got tired of defending. When I saw those pre-rendered videos of the N97 the first thing I thought was that the final product would be nothing like that but I was kind of glad that Nokia appeared to understand what they SHOULD be doing. Now the N900 looks smooth as silk in reality as well as the pre-rendered videos, I'm hoping Nokia are back in the game.
Actually, the CEO of Nokia said that N97 is selling faster than N95 ( http://www.mobile-ent.biz/news/34202/NOKIA-WORLD-Nokias-10m-selling-duo= )
"The CEO of Nokla could not be reached for comment."
LAMO, and I hate internet acronyms.
So couple of american geeks, who take a dump on Nokia on regular basis and have absolutely no clue about global mobile business, couldn't reach a CEO of Nokia on a friday night after he had spent several days abroad hosting Nokia's biggest event of the year.
Suprising!