n97 Archives - TheWayoftheWeb

I may have been slightly sarcastic when I wrote that the Nokia N97 is the ‘ultimate geek phone’ (although given the masochistic approach of most geeks to technology, I’m probably not too far wrong!), but I think it’s now safe to say that the iPhone is no longer a talking point for any self-respecting geek.

Sure you can mention specific apps, but with over 100,000 and growing, the novelty value is pretty rare.

And the signs are all around us – a recent Mashable vote gave Android victory over the iPhone at a 2:1 ratio (interestingly the iPhone won when they last ran the same vote, just one month ago), the UK supermarket chain Tesco is now going to stock the phone, and when I think about it, it’s hard to think of a single hardcore geek in my close network who is talking about the iPhone, or taking the time to show it off. They may still have one as their regular phone, it might still be brilliant for many things, and it may rank as one of the best gadgets of the current era.

But it’s mainstream now, so it’s time to move on…

It seems every card-carrying geek I spent time with now is either clinging to their Magic , showing off their Hero , or lusting after a Droid/Milestone.

Is the Nokia N97 the ultimate geek phone? You might need to stick with me for a moment while I explain…

So it’s pretty clear that the consumer smartphone market and awareness belongs to the Apple iPhone 3GS, while the business market is owned primarily by RIM’s Blackberry. (For an interesting discussion of the current statistics framed as an examination of Nokia, check out Tomi T Ahonen’s recent posts, particularly this one.)

Meanwhile the flood on Android phones is increasing in pace – the current HTC Hero is about to be joined by a positive plethora of handsets from Samsung, Motorola, HTC and many others.

So the iPhone has pretty much jumped the shark into mainstream awareness, the Blackberry marks you as someone who is emailing at 2am and doesn’t do anything else, and to be able to have geek cred on Android will mean swapping handsets every month and relying on the phone equivalent of trainspotters to recognise what you’re using.

Enter the N97.

It’s got good hardware – 5.0 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss lens, video capture, GPS, Wifi, Bluetooth, etc, etc.

But more importantly, the operating system takes time to learn (and indeed to operate!). It’s not easy to use, some things don’t work, and the Ovi Store has problems which have been discussed at length by consumers and developers.

And that’s what makes it the ultimate geek phone.

Ultimate geek stuff isn’t mass market, easy to use, or without character. I’m a big fan of Ubuntu, but I struggle to recommend it to a lot of people, and I’m not alone, due to some simplicity needed for everyday consumers. The same thing applies to Open Office, Gimp, and hand coding everything from scratch.

A while ago Robert Scoble asked on Twitter whether anyone could name someone in their geek circle who actually had an N97. I immediately thought of James Whatley and Corvida, both of whom are more credible phone geeks than me.

So here’s to the N97 and to geek cred for things which require more effort, persistance and curiousity to use than the average person has time or patience for.

Has the iPhone jumped the shark?

The Nokia N97: The ultimate geek phone?