James Delahunty
7 Apr 2008 21:14
Nokia Corp. is continuing to work on its answer to Apple Inc.'s touted iPhone. The new Nokia gadget, codenamed "Tube", also includes a touch-screen interface and apparently has a similar design. The product was shown off in a slide at the Evans Data Developer Relations Conference in Redwood City, California. It showed examples of the graphical display capability in the phone with a promotion for the movie Shrek the Third.
"It's our first touch device," said Tom Libretto, vice president of Forum Nokia. The company has not made public information on when it intends to have Tube on the market. While Apple handheld products have received extra-ordinary success in the past few years, Nokia believes it can compete with the iPhone while MP3 player manufacturers concede defeat to iPod.
During his presentation, Tom Libretto emphasized the huge different in shipments of phones from Nokia's range and the Apple iPhone. Since its June 2007 launch, the iPhone has sold about 5 - 6 million units. "We've done that volume since we've had dinner on Friday," Libretto said. One notable point about Nokia's upcoming "Tube" model is that, unlike iPhone, it supports Java.
Last week, Nokia finally re-launched its N-Gage platform with the opening of the N-Gage store. The service provides downloads for owners of the Nokia N81 8GB, N81 SD, N82, N95, and N95 8GB, but promises that more phones will become compatible with the service over time.