[vee]

Someone is playing a step-ahead game... Nokia announced phone that SE planned to announce (specifications wise) in February / March and to be released in May / June - interesting that this phone is expected to be relased at about the same time and there will be version for Vodafone only (it is well know SE strategy, that I made comments about in last press conference briefing, and now Nokia is (ab)using it). So lets see if SE was / is ready for this (no K750-suprise-effect next year for sure as it was with K750 and competitors this year). Well as much as SE is "my" brand there is definite need for some changes and 6-year strategy...

So go read through Nokia 6233 page to see what K850 wanted to be.

Regards,
vee

[lesha]

Rather intersting Indeed...
What i thought...k850 not equal to w850 i hope???
Yes, it is..

This post has been edited by lesha: 03 December 2005 - 07:21 PM

[ixmog]

Nokia recently had announced a large number of handsets for 2006. That's great

SE is really behind time !!! With only the dissappointed W900i in Dec 2005 and the ever crashing P990i.
SE what's up next ? Only a downsize P990i and K850i in the roadmap for 2006? That is bad !!!
Many enhancements they could have implemented in their walkman phones but was missing !!!
e.g. Album art in the media player, syncing with iTunes playlist, 3 megapixel camera & 4 to 6 gig
hardisk mp3 phone . All missing !!! When P990i is out next year, it will be outdated compared to Nokia phones.

BAD SE !!! And real slow ... You gonna lose more customers at the rate and type of phones you offered !!!

[sidneylopsides]

Looks good on paper, but I doubt SE will left behind.

[MikLSP]

To me that Nokia looks like a cheap, low end phone in terms of its design/appearance.

[sidneylopsides]

It does look alot like the 6030

This post has been edited by sidneylopsides: 03 December 2005 - 04:34 PM

[MikLSP]

If it was a SE then everyone would be criticising it saying it looks dull and uimaginative and SE has really lost the plot

I actually think it looks ok design wise but only as a low end phone, a rival to the K300 for example

This post has been edited by MikLSP: 03 December 2005 - 03:39 PM

[vee]

I don't know... I like it quite a lot. It is different for Nokia... I especially like it in demo... very simple (design-wise) phone. But I guess it is all about taste .

Regards,
vee

[scotsboyuk]

I think SE have been somewhat slow this year; the K750 and W800 are excellent handsets in their class, but there hasn't been the necessary 'oomph' in either the high-end or the low-end in my opinion. The J200 and the J220 really let down the low-end although the Z520 does rescue it somewhat. The high-end is just apalling, with only the W900 there to fly the flag; the P990 not being released until next year. Even the W900 isn't all that we had hoped for.

Next year SE really have to pull their finger out and give us what they should have given us this year. This 6233 is just the sort of mobile that can become very very popular very very quickly. It looks to be a good all rounder and will likly appeal to a broad section of people a la the K750. SE do need an equivalent next year, but that isn't enough, SE need something exceptional in each catgeory. Resting one's laurels on one or two handsets isn't a good showing in my opinion. As good as the K750 and W800 are SE should have had some equally as good for both the low-end and high-end. Let's hope they provide us with the goods next year.

[MikLSP]

We do indeed need more high end products from SE

When will they grant that wish

[scotsboyuk]

@Mik

I think we do, but as long as more products doesn't come at the expense of quality.

[MikLSP]

Well I'm not asking for sack loads of high end phones but just some more. SE have only produced a small number of high end phones and I'm sure they could manage to squeeze in a couple more without them having to suffer from reduced quality

[scotsboyuk]

I don't think I would be alone in saying that this year has felt like something of a letdown with regards to ne SE mobiles. Not that there haven't been some good mobiles this year just that there was the scope for so much more.

[thanasis]

Guys i think that you are being far too unfair towards SE with your expectations and criticisms.

I have been reading forums from here to esato over the past years and it is always the same story every year. There are always complaints about SE not producing enough breath taking devices when compared to other manufacturers and compared to what everybody dreams about.

What everyone seems to forget though is how small a venture SE actually is and how limited their production capacity is. When you compare SE in size ( and i mean size as in corporate structure, budget, number of employees and production limits) to the likes of Motorola, Nokia Samsung, LG and even Siemens, you will see that SE is by far the smallest player in the market. Compared to these huge multinational corporations SE is merely a small newcomer trying to break into the market.

If anyone of you had read the Gartned report on mobile phone sales in the 3rd quarter you would have seen that SE overtook LG and captured the fourth spot with 6.7% of the market. The most important factor of the report though lies with inventory/stock levels. SE was the only company in the report to be completely out of stock whilst other manufacturers were able to meet demand for their products and build up more stock for the lucrative christmass period.

In this sense SE is the loser and the loser in two ways. Firstly had it been able to produce as much as demand required it would have been far higher than 6.7% of the market and secondly it would have positioned itself strongly for the xmas period. Instead, the same old story will repeat itself, and the W900 K750 and W800 will be out of stock for christmas!

My point is that for its size and capabilities, over the last 18 months, SE has done an admirable job in managing to release successful products like the k700 k750 and now the w800. What counts for SE at the moment is not grabbing the attention of the online community week in week out with repeated presentations of new phones. SE focuses on producing high featured phones that it will be able to actually produce in sufficient quantities. What is the point of SE presenting the K950 tomorrow if it will not be able to produce enough for everyone untill 2007??

Hence patience is the word! The K750, W800 and now the w900 are still some of the best phones one can buy today with VERY FEW better alternatives ( features/price). When the time is right SE knows when to unleash the next beast

[ixmog]

Although SE is a bit let down this year but i do agree Z520, K750, W550, W800 & W900 are
indeed great phones for 2005

Hope SE can announced new phones in the 1st quarter of 2006 with 3 megapixel autofocus macro 3X zoom,
4 to 6 gig of either hard drive or flash memory mp3 music phone with full id3 tag support, syncing with iTunes,
Mac OSX support, WiFi music streaming, bluetooth stereo earphones, TV broadcast, 30fps video recording & pda functions. :-)

Is it possible ? Let's wait and see ...

[UnknownX]

This is probably the thread where pre-release specification is the closest to reality LOL. JK. K850i might be its released name, but right now its still in its early stage, and it doesn't hold the name K850 on the handset that we tested. It will be better than 6233 for sure, so Nokia's prediction came close, but not close enough to cut off SE's K series. Enhancement in design and specifications went pretty well. Over the time K8 has been tested, it gets remodeled for a number of times, and it just kept getting better and better. To me though, it looks kinda like K750i still.

@ixmog
I never seen the thing called P970 or down-sized P990i. All I see is something smaller than P990i, but higher specification.

@MikLSP
Indeed that SE have very small number of high-end handsets. Though, I think our high-end perspective will change soon. K8 will not be considered High-end just as K750i, it will be mid-end as for next year's outline. We will see Z800i's successor(I say that because, My My, the size are so similar), I think it will be announced Q3, and may be sold Q1 2007.

This post has been edited by UnknownX: 04 December 2005 - 05:34 AM

[thanasis]

@ unknown X

If i remember correctly Eldar had his hands on a working final version prototype of the K750 this time last year (early december). I remember he posted about the specs and started the silly puzzle game. By Xmas day we had the first official picture of the phone online. Do you think we are due some leaks by Eldar or anyone else regarding the successor?

PS: I just checked the MR forums and it was exactly one year ago today that eldar posted info on the k750!

[UnknownX]

@thanasis
I do remember when I was following Eldar's puzzle too, it was fun This is what SE fears is that K8 will be lost on the internet. I'm pretty sure they want to keep it for a while atleast until the end of this month, then I think there should be a purpose leak. K8 should be a flagship just as this year's K750i. The next W9 I doubt that it will be a flagship(so no one will think there will be W1000).

I think its still early for K8 to be finalized since there's still time, though in reality it might be ready already. I want to give example of W900i since the final memory came out as 470MB, but the week before the announcement when SE collected all proto's it was 1GB. So you should see my point is that its never too late to change anything. K8 will have 3MP and 3G for sure, and it will keep MSD Pro format, and not M2 like everyone thought. Mulan too, we tested with MSD Pro, not M2.

[clonmult]

The K750/W800 are probably the strongest phones to hit the market this year on overall features. This new Nokia doesn't improve on anything obvious (definitely not on looks!).

But on the other hand, SE do need to do something about the next year to keep the momentum going.

[MikLSP]

I'm sure they will have some nice things next year though we need something from them early in the year and not all after summer