Nokia today unveiled in Mumbai the new addition to its N-Series range: Nokia N97 Mini. We were there to cover the event live from the Taj Lands End, Mumbai. We bring you excerpts from our exclusive conversation with Jonne Harju, Senior Design Manager at Nokia Design Studio. We also got an opportunity to speak with Jasmeet Gandhi, Nokia India’s Head of Services Marketing, with whom we discussed not only the N97 Mini but also Nokia’s plans for the Indian market in general.
On the Nokia N97 Mini:
“Nokia N97 Mini comes with ‘Lifecasting with Ovi’ and opens up a new chapter of social & location-aware internet. It also comes pre loaded with Nokia Ovi Maps 3.0. The device has India specific widgets & applications on Ovi Store.”
“Nokia N97 Mini does not come equipped with a stylus because we want users to use the phone more with their fingers.” (in reply to our query on the lack of stylus)
“A physical qwerty keyboard eliminates the necessity of having a virtual touchscreen full qwerty keyboard (in reply to our query on why the N97 Mini continues the N97 legacy of not providing that option to the user)
One thing is for sure …… N97 Mini does feel good in the hands as compared to the older N97.
On Nokia’s delay in introducing new handsets in India (something we covered in our previous post):
“Nokia wants to customise the handsets by bundling song tracks, movies & other India specific content. Moreover, we have no information on whether phones such as E52 & E55 will be launched in the Indian market. These decisions are made at Nokia Global HQ level.”
On whether the Nokia 5800 will get the firmware update to include kinetic scrolling:
“Yes.”
However we still don’t know the time line for the roll-out of the new firmware. Some users on the internet seem to suggest that the firmware will be launched in the second half of November.
On the likely date for the launch of the Nokia N900 in India:
“No information at present.”
We got a chance to play with the Nokia N900 alongwith the N97 Mini and we liked what we saw. We can’t wait for the Nokia N900 to arrive in India!
