New Smart Phone of Nokia – Button-Less N9

Nokia has always been one of the premier producers of cell phones and smart phones and now they have come up with a novel design; the new Nokia button-less smart phone N9. Besides being button-less the smart phone is also the only one devised by Nokia that has works on the Linux-based MeeGo platform.

No Key Pad or Home Buttons

One of the novel features of the new Nokia button-less smart phone N9 is that besides being button-less it also does not have a touch pad like other phones in the market. While the pricing is still to be announced, it is expected that the new smart phone will be arriving in the market at the fall 2011.

Change in Plans

Nokia in fact changed its earlier plan to use the MeeGo platform for its new smart phones when it started using the Windows Phone of Microsoft commencing from the month of February this year. However, it still decided to go with the Linux form for the Nokia button-less smart phone N9 at least one last time and to have a look at the customer response to the platform used in the latest smart phone.

New Model Features

• The new model has several novel features such as –
• It is perhaps the first as well as the last smart phone to use MeeGo platform;
• The smart phone has a large touch screen;
• Nokia button-less smart phone N9 is available in different colors like black, magenta, and cyan.

What the Designer’s Claim

According to Marko Ahtisaari, the head designer of Nokia; “With the Nokia N9, we re-evaluated the way we thought a smartphone should act. It should be simple and it should blend software, hardware, services and content into a unique user experience.”

Unique Choice

In essence the choice of Nokia in selecting MeeGo seems unique as the market is still very much dominated by Apple and Google. This platform was introduced back in February last year in 2010 with merger of Linux Maemo software platform of Nokia with Moblin of Intel. Incidentally, the Moblin is also based on the Linux open source software. However, Nokia withdrew from the project in the beginning of the current year and other vendors are now showing interest in the technology which they could not express earlier due to dominant role of Nokia in the project.

Fight for Dominance

In traditional cell phone market, Nokia is still the dominant name but in the smart phone market it is being relegated to back seat in the face of some innovative competitions by Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android platforms.

Nokia button-less smart phone N9 Specifications

Basic features of the new smart phone of Nokia are –

• Touch-only interface that is based on swipe gestures;
• 3.9 inch AMOLED displays;
• An 8-megapixel Carl Zeiss camera that has HD video capture capabilities;
• 16.9 widescreen video playback;
• Dolby recording facilities;
• In built NFC chip; and
• Free turn by turn drive as well as walk navigation facilities.

Dispensing with buttons and touch pad is certainly a new innovation not tried so far either by Nokia or by other smart phone providers. It only remains to be seen how the end users react and what the device is going to really provide for them.

Posted in: Mobiles,Smart Phones