Black Nokia N82 up on Nokia USA Site; No US 3G
Here we go again, people. Albeit backordered until February 12, the black Nokia N82 has popped up on the Nokia USA’s distributor site and is available for purchase. Yes, it looks pretty sweet in black with a sleek face and matching black buttons. Yes, the phone itself is a dynamo; essentially an N95 in candybar form with a xenon flash-backed 5 megapixel camera. So what’s the problem? There’s one little spec on the N82 page that couldn’t possibly be more aggravating: "WCDMA2100". Great, so here goes the song and dance all over again. Release the European version here in the US, rope in as many early buyers as possible and then drop the version equipped with US 3G / HSDPA. They did it with the N95, but we’ll cut them some slack on that one since it was the first newer high-end Nokia handset to be compatible with US (AT&T) HSDPA networks. Next came the N95 8GB which should be available some time this month. Now the N82 will surely follow suit. But hey, why not milk potential customers for as much as possible while you’re in the midst of attempting to revive your high-end device market share? Brilliant plan, the people will love it. As a side note, the included accessories list shows that the phone comes with a 128 MB memory card. 128 MB?! No worries though; if you do plan to play Nokia’s game and shell out $630 for the Euro version while a US version is no doubt on the way, the shopping cart shows a 2 GB card on checkout.
[Via IntoMobile]
629!!!!!……and why doesnt this work for EDGE networks….damn tmobile….great phone though….but to much to cough up….
Talk about taking a Page From Apple’s play book..Sheesh
Of course! As we all know, every single piece of electronics that’s black is a rip off of Apple. 100%. Absolutely. No question.
Maybe you meant the real buttons? The 5.0 megapixel camera with xenon flash and Carl Zeiss lens? I know! Nokia just rips off of Apple sooo much.
Fact: God hates fanboys. The internet said so.
I think he meant by screwing over the people who bought the silver version because they couldn’t wait for the black one (like me). I mean, really, it took them this long just to release a color they knew everyone wanted from day 1?
Gawd – This phone in black with US 3G would be the one thing that would put me off my K850i…I want Nokia to make one my bank account sure doesn’t.
It’s strange that Nokia is getting the blame here for European 3G. I don’t think Nokia had anything to do with the FCC, AT&T and T-Mobile’s decisions to go with different 3G bands. Nokia has designed a top-notch phone for their primary markets. That a secondary market is somewhat incompatible is an aside.
In the meantime they are at least making it available locally, so if we want a decent phone we don’t have to pay rip-off pricing and shipping to some barely legit e-bay seller to get it over here
I think it’s easy to blame Nokia for lack of US 3G. I will admit an lack of knowledge about cellphone component prices or design costs but I can’t see why the largest cellphone manufacturer in the world can’t add the US 3G frequency alongside the European freqs to sell a tri-band 3G phone across all their markets. Other companies successfully do it.
I would think selling one phone that works everywhere would lower support costs and increase sales.
Is there some licensing issue that prevents Nokia from making tri-band 3G phones?
well in terms of Nokia not bringing their higher end phones with US 3g band, is there a chip dispute with broadcom/qualcomm on how certain phones with certain chips cant be here, dunno if nokia falls into that category.
Im ignorant as well when it comes to actual cost of production to the phones themselves, so dont know if it makes economical sense for the phones ot be here.
Lastly, with carrier subsized phones, software/hardware wise….who would want a raped N series phone? If you don’t want that then you will have to cough up the money to buy it in its true form. Plus these phones would still around 2 bills after 2 year contract/rebate….so most customers wont go for it. If it aint free nowwadays, the average cell phone illerate person isnt going to buy it.