Nokia N-Gage - 'Swan's death'

In the end, every prediction becomes a reality. Nokia has officially terminated the life of a pet child for a while: the N-Gage game phone.

Recently, the world's number-one mobile phone manufacturer has said it has not developed new versions of its N-Gage game phones, as well as temporarily suspending mobile games for a few years to fully focus on it. for phones to listen to music and watch videos.

And if before, how much N-Gage was praised and promoted, now its death takes place quietly and quietly. Mr. Nokia's vice president of strategy, Antti Vasara, must also admit that N-Gage is a bitter defeat in exploring a new product line. " We enlightened to one thing: consumers want to play games on every mechanical device. That's why we integrated game software into 60 series phones. "

First released in October 2003, Nokia N-Gage was really a "bubble" that had been inflated by the media. Nokia has bombarded all TV channels, web and magazines with an impressive advertisement of skateboarders. However, many gamers feel uncomfortable by this ad, especially because of a statement from the company's spokesperson - saying that the Game Boys at this time are no longer "cool". Many experts in the field of marketing also offer similar negative reactions.

But the real reason why N-Gage " sinks " like the Titanic is in the product itself: extremely rewarding. In the first version, every time you want to change another game, the player must remove the battery. If they want to call (ie use the original function of the device), they will have to reverse it.

Withdrawal of N-Gage experience, Nokia launched N-Gage QD in 2004, overcome the shortcomings of battery and side-talking design, but sales were still very sluggish, within 3 years, the company Only sold 2 million N-Gage devices (both first and QD versions), compared with the initial estimate of 6 million. Nokia currently has only limited production plans to serve both China and India markets.

For the rest of the world, Nokia N-Gage really has left her life in solitude, no one knows, ending the paranoia and sloppy for a while. Another lesson for Nokia: " Just do it when you think about nine ":

Thien Y