Why does NOKIA invest more money in N97 rather than N900?

[white_ranger]

I live in Europe and in my country almost nobody have heard about N900. There's not even marketing at all. It's just in some magazines that describe it like "super surfer" and stuff like that. But when it comes to N97, whenever i go, i see a billboard with N97 on it. It even has a TV commercial. I understand that N97 is more for average user and N900 is more for geeks, but N900 is a lot better phone. They should invest more money in it.

[zehjotkah]

No, the N900 is not the better phone. It's the better mobile computer.
The N97 is still Nokias flagship smartphone.
And the N900 is only step 4 of 5.
Be prepared for a massive marketing campagne for the next meego device.

[Brank]

N900 is a concept phone, thus it has not been marketed at full capacity. As stated it's part 4/5. When we get to MeeGo (5/5), I bet Nokia will show us a whole new gear in their marketing systems.

[ysss]

Because they expect to make more money with the N97.

[cashclientel]

Thanks ysss... the bottom line is always the answer to these types of questions!

white_ranger as well where do you live? if it's one of the poorer countires in europe, nokia might think that the stretch in price to the n900 over the n97 is too far. also they may be having difficulty getting carrier subsidies for such an expensive handset.

[Rauha]

white_ranger as well where do you live? if it's one of the poorer countires in europe, nokia might think that the stretch in price to the n900 over the n97 is too far. also they may be having difficulty getting carrier subsidies for such an expensive handset.
They are priced almost identically. N97 is sligthly cheaper in some shops, but still in same price segment.

EDIT: Basically Symbian is the mass market product. Maemo still "Step 4/5".

[NvyUs]

Thanks ysss... the bottom line is always the answer to these types of questions!

white_ranger as well where do you live? if it's one of the poorer countires in europe, nokia might think that the stretch in price to the n900 over the n97 is too far. also they may be having difficulty getting carrier subsidies for such an expensive handset.

makes no sense b/c both was exactly same price at launch, it all comes down to how many units sold, they shipped and sold millions of n97s and n97 minis so there will always be more money invested there by nokia

[Dave999]

smaller market share == less money == simple === boring :)

[Rauha]

Another way to look at it would be to check the active threads on TMO and see how many whine threads about lack of MMS, MFE, video calls and other missing stuff there are. N900's feature set just isn't t ready for same kind of mainstrem push as N97.

[msa]

the n97 obviously is more mainstream than the n900. so yes, they propably invest more on it than on the n900.

just yesterday, i saw a tv-commercial for the x6.
i didnt see any n900 commercials...

[doksng]

It is easier to crash the N900 compared to the N97. Probably they are restricting the volume thereby reducing customer complaints.

They may be using the N900 to test features that would be ported to the next Symbian^3 as they look similar

[berty]

I owned an N97, back then it seemed like they'd invested about £4.50 in it.

[twigleaf1976]

The N97 has been removed from my carrier (UK T mobile) altogether, as has the N97 mini which is being withdrawn and existing stock phased out. They have refused to get the N900 completely.

Me thinks that Nokia is in trouble if there current phones are anything to go by, half finished, poor quality. Given orange and T mobile are now the largest Uk carrier (or will be when the merge finishes) and neither really like the Nokia offerings. Having used the N97 and now stupidly buying an N900. (Which crashed again today, requiring me to remove the battery just to get a reboot. When all I did was plug it into the PC to copy files.) I can see why

[NokiaRocks]

Yeah no marketing in Germany too.
Everyone's is like : "It's the N97 or N97 mini you got ?" :(

[livefreeordie]

There are very few reasons to heavily advertise a device you can sell as fast as you can produce. The N900 was never supposed to be manufactured in as large quantities as the N97, and you can't change that in a day.

[livefreeordie]

stupidly buying an N900. (Which crashed again today, requiring me to remove the battery just to get a reboot. When all I did was plug it into the PC to copy files.)

You are in the minority here. The N900 is the most stable phone I have ever owned.

And isn't Orange a carrier notorious for screwing with the firmware? No wonder they're withdrawing the N97 if their users are still stuck on an old version.

But yes, the original N97 made a serious dent in Nokia's reputation. If it had launched less buggy and with just a bit more RAM it would've been a major success. The RAM still puzzles me, because buggy software is a harder issue to change, and the cost savings from being able to run Symbian on older ARM processors should already have been major.

[zail]

The N97 has been removed from my carrier (UK T mobile) altogether, as has the N97 mini which is being withdrawn and existing stock phased out. They have refused to get the N900 completely.



Ummm.. Am I imagining my n900 on UK TMobile 24 mth contract bought from Carphone Warehouse then???? :p

Also, the n900 is clearly an "early adopters" device - Hence the step 4 out of 5 statement made by nokia so when you compare matketing for it with the marketing and support for the n97 you're not comparing like for like....

[raverpol]

U know what? I don't need any advertiment to be proud of my N900 :) It is the best device I've ever had. Very stabile, and its open so everyday I find something new in Appl Mgr. I missed only mms servive but since we have fMms i don't miss anything. People say here about huge lack of video talk but I didnt use it even with my N95 hehe I like this computer very much and all I think about right now is new platform and maybe I will change it for Meego but I don't need Symbian anymore :)

[attila77]

I live in Europe and in my country almost nobody have heard about N900. There's not even marketing at all. It's just in some magazines that describe it like "super surfer" and stuff like that. But when it comes to N97, whenever i go, i see a billboard with N97 on it. It even has a TV commercial. I understand that N97 is more for average user and N900 is more for geeks, but N900 is a lot better phone. They should invest more money in it.

Note that the N900 is more oriented towards online folks. I have seen plenty of N900 commercials, but *on sites* (mostly gadget/tech enthusiast) and not meatspace. They reckon if you need a billboard or a TV commercial to find out about the N900, then it's not for you and they reserve that role (for better or worse) to the N97. Harmattan is technically step 4.5 of 5 as it's mostly MeeGo in name and user interface, but not in lower-to-mid level architecture.

[Flandry]

Thread title should have the words "seem to" and "advertise" in it because (1) it is a (admittedly likely) conjecture and (2) the examples given say nothing about Nokia's investment in the device itself, just its marketing.

I'd actually be much more interested in a thread that can have the title this one has and mean it, if it is actually the case and there are facts (e.g. numbers) being given to support it.

[gabby131]

n900 i believe is not yet fully operational in the market for the reason being that it is still on processing stage, being an open source device, users can easily update their n900 even if their device is still half or 3/4 way completed,

N97 is not an open source, so if Nokia screw up on software the way that a firmware update cannot resolve, its a bit of trouble.

N97 was announced a year ago before it is released, n900 was announced and released after n97. "first thing is what comes FIRST"

Totally happy that you updated us about the n97 being active in your country, coz in my location, rarely n97 commercials or promotions are seen, at least i know that Nokia is still making the best out of n97.

[Alex Atkin UK]

Judging a device based on which carrier sells it directly is a bit silly.

Its only logical, the networks would much rather we bought dumb phones with huge amount of bundled minutes and texts, as they make more money that way. The more powerful the phone, the less likely you will need to make calls or texts, as you have e-mail and the whole Internet to contact people with far cheaper.

For a start, T-Mobile never sold the Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 which is why I had to get it on O2, a huge mistake as the handset was poorly designed and O2 reception is the shite. The networks always pick and choose handsets, they want the ones which they can charge the most but support the least.

The N900 is their worst nightmare, as people will be demanding support left and right, because its missing features people expected it to have plus it works somewhat different to other handsets. The N97 however, I suspect its as someone said above, it needed a lot of firmware tweaking to work right so networks which like to customise their firmware will not be happy, as its more work for them each time a new firmware comes out. It might be cheaper to ditch it than support it. Although personally I believe they are wrong, because you don't gain customer loyalty leaving them with old buggy firmware versions, but then I think all the networks are equally rubbish in the UK for that, so what choice do you have if they all suck compared to the updates you get buying a phone outright?

Its really quite sad that today rather than trying to beat your competition, everyone is instead all trying to drop to the same poor level of support so that it no longer makes any difference, they all suck.

[qwazix]

Here in greece the N97/mini is on almost every carrier shop screen and it costs (the big one) about 650 euros (the mini is a stunning 150 eur cheaper) whereas you can find the N900 only in a few (if not one) brick and mortar chain with a price of about 550 euros. That's a pretty big price difference.
I remember when I was waiting for it the N97 was nearly 700eur. I expected the N900 (spec-wize) to cost about 800 just as much as the first N95's and a year later the 8gb's. When I saw the price (569?) I realized I had a chance to make it mine.
________
Infants nexium (http://www.classactionsettlements.org/lawsuit/nexium/)

[pycage]

Yeah no marketing in Germany too.
Everyone's is like : "It's the N97 or N97 mini you got ?" :(

Check the recent mobilcom / debitel flyer in your postbox. :)
Page 1 shows the N97, but page 3 has the N900, and it's subsidized, too.

[white_ranger]

Does it mean that nokia will completely forget the N900 and just focus on the new MeeGo device?

[NokiaRocks]

@pycage: No flyer in my postbox :P
But nice to see the N900 somewhere.