Nokia is looking for new places to sell the N81, as the networks aren't having any of it, and is looking to pimp the handset in Game stores.
Nokia have a history with Game, albeit not a great one, with their N-Gage handset, which against platforms such as Nintendo's Gameboy was a complete flop and promptly discontinued.
Nokia relaunched the N-Gage as a system as opposed to a handset, and the N81 is one phone that will handle it well. With dedicated game keys the N81 is perfectly suited to the casual mobile gamer, although it isn't focused on games and does other things pretty well too.
Nokia are thought to be looking at other retail options following the decision by networks not to stock it. Orange in particular weren't in favour of the N81 and it's link to Ovi the Nokia music store.
As reported back in August in a memo from Orange to Nokia execs, the network threatened to derange the N81 handset and contact other manufacturers to make up the shortfall.
Orange asked to only load the Nokia Music Store on 8gb versions of the handset, with the 1gb edition to only have Orange's own store preloaded, thereby giving them the opportunity to compare results.
This never happened, and therefore Orange pulled it
"We felt that there was a customer experience issue with a risk of it costing our customers lots of money to download music from the Nokia music store due to the size of the music file. We felt there were other phones available that would better suit our customers. " said Orange
Nokia denied that they had to look at other options for the N81 due to low take-up instead putting it down to strategy.
'It was a strategic fit as these are the places consumers who buy games go,' said Nokia business manager for games Martin O'Driscoll.
Seemingly missing the point that the N81 is a phone, and phone shops are the places consumers who buy phones go to.
Nokia relaunched the N-Gage as a system as opposed to a handset, and the N81 is one phone that will handle it well. With dedicated game keys the N81 is perfectly suited to the casual mobile gamer, although it isn't focused on games and does other things pretty well too.
Nokia are thought to be looking at other retail options following the decision by networks not to stock it. Orange in particular weren't in favour of the N81 and it's link to Ovi the Nokia music store.
As reported back in August in a memo from Orange to Nokia execs, the network threatened to derange the N81 handset and contact other manufacturers to make up the shortfall.
Orange asked to only load the Nokia Music Store on 8gb versions of the handset, with the 1gb edition to only have Orange's own store preloaded, thereby giving them the opportunity to compare results.
This never happened, and therefore Orange pulled it
"We felt that there was a customer experience issue with a risk of it costing our customers lots of money to download music from the Nokia music store due to the size of the music file. We felt there were other phones available that would better suit our customers. " said Orange
Nokia denied that they had to look at other options for the N81 due to low take-up instead putting it down to strategy.
'It was a strategic fit as these are the places consumers who buy games go,' said Nokia business manager for games Martin O'Driscoll.
Seemingly missing the point that the N81 is a phone, and phone shops are the places consumers who buy phones go to.