One of the problems I have with talking about products that companies have announced but not yet shipped is that they occasionally change their minds and cancel the product entirely. The Nokia 7700 is a case in point. InfoSync World reported on the Nokia 7700’s demise earlier today, with the manufacturer citing the immaturity of 3G content and services as a major factor in the decision.
I think the form factor had a lot to do with the cancellation. I don’t know that many people who are looking for a mobile device that is shaped like a taco, no matter how big and brilliant the display is. Would this have been another phone which required you to hold it in some odd way in order to use it with out a headset? (Think of the N-Gage side-talking fiasco. They can’t make a mistake like that again.)
I talked about the 7700 in the Operation Gadget article Is Visual Radio a Nokia Innovation that Will Make a Difference?, where I said:
Another problem is the form factor. Every mockup I’ve seen of Visual Radio is based on the Nokia 7700, a large Series 90 handheld that doesn’t have a keypad and isn’t available yet. Is this what you thought your next mobile phone would look like? Probably not. I’m sure they have plans to deliver it on a variety of devices, but they need to show people what Visual Radio will look like on those platforms.
If you are still interested in seeing Visual Radio implemented, like me, you will be glad to hear that InfoSync World believes it will still happen:
…Visual Radio will still make it to consumers by the end of this year as Nokia plans to launch the service with one of its Series 60 based smartphones to be available by the end of 2004. The most likely candidate would be the recently announced Nokia 6260, which features an integrated FM tuner, however should this not be the case Tuutti also confirmed that Visual Radio software would be backwardly compatible with smartphones equipped with FM tuners.
But after featuring a prototype that never made it into production in my last Visual Radio article, I’m going to say I’ll believe Visual Radio will be a product when I see it demonstrated by a mobile carrier, rather than Nokia itself.