Coming between what are probably the two biggest smartphone launches of the year, Nokia unveiled their new contender to the throne, the N97. The Finnish phone maker packed their newest device with plenty of features you’d want in a decent phone. There’s just one thing they overlooked – price.
The N97 comes in at a whopping $700. Of course, that’s outside contract, which serves to explain the price. Plenty of cells, including this year’s big launches, would sell for that amount if purchased without a contract. The problem, for Nokia at least, is that American consumers are so conditioned to contract subsidized pricing that $700 is going to feel like a swift kick to the groin.
Feature by feature, the N97 closely matches the Palm Pre and the iPhone 3GS. It’s got 32GB of internal memory, a multi-touch touchscreen, and a slide out QWERTY keyboard. Nokia has said on several occasions that they would like to be more competitive in the U.S. market. How they hope to do that with phones at more than double the major carriers’ premium prices is beyond me.
You know what they say, though; freedom isn’t free, but aside from the folks who really despise contracts, I doubt you’ll see many N95s in hand this summer.
