Symbian in Motion

AT&T 2H 2008 Roadmap Leaked; No N95 NAM, No E71

by Zach at 6:01 pm | July 01st, 2008 | Category: Handsets, Tangents

How amazingly disappointing. The AT&T roadmap for the second half of this year was leaked today and the N95 NAM is nowhere to be found. Rumors have made the rounds several times with regards to AT&T picking up the N95 NAM but if it isn’t happening in 2008 then my guess: It isn’t happening.

To be honest, I’m upset. I had heard from several AT&T employees of varying rank that the N95 was in the process of being added to AT&T’s lineup this year. Maybe they were all lying or maybe they were all coincidentally mistaken. Assuming the leaked roadmap was complete, odds are something went wrong with the deal. I was really gunning for Nokia on this one - making a flagship S60 handset available through the biggest carrier in the US would be a huge accomplishment for our Finnish friends. In a nutshell, it would give Nokia’s high end more exposure in the US than it has ever had before.

There have also been rumors that the E71 would be making its way to AT&T. While it was absent from the roadmap as well, if this rumor does have any substance 1H 2009 would be the likely target. We shall see…

Viewing 16 Comments

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    Maybe Nokia didn't want to tabtop their top-dollar phone, and ATT wanted that done? I broke my unlocked N-75 Sat., with the insurance got a brand new (tab topped) one today. It is pitiful what Nokia did to a decent phone for them.
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    I am the product manager for a substantial enterprise software company. I promise you faithfully that however official the document or powerpoint was if i dont give it to you and explain it its not real - sales people (both grounds and executive tell people what they want or they think they want to hear). I am to old and ugly, and done it to long to be proven otherwise
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    I have a few words WTF!?
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    hahahaha, i can't laughing man......but if i could have a moment to breath those would be the words i'd say........nice one Abul!!!!!........hahahaha
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    and is that supposed to be a bad thing?
    Why would you want everyone and their moms owning one?
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    I would assume to make money? It's a pretty basic concept, good handset should sell well.
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    What Abul said. ;)

    Nokia is less than a year into beginning to cater some high end devices to
    the US market. So far its efforts are not going incredibly well and seeding
    a top-notch S60 handset with AT&T, subsidized to make it affordable, would
    go great lengths to improve Nokia's S60 presence here in the US.

    And why would I care if everyone and their mom had one? Nokia and S60 are a
    terrific combo. I want people to know that - I don't want to hide it!
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    Am I missing something? The "road map" seems totally incomplete. Are you saying they will not release a single low end phone the whole of the latter half of 2008? Or that they won't have the iPhone 3G? How does an incomplete list prove there want be some other phones (which may or may not include N95; or N78 for example)?
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    The list appeared to cover the smartphone lineup pretty plauseably + No N95 = my disappointment.

    --Sent from my Nokia N95 8GB
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    Well, we all know AT&T definition of smartphones is weird at best. N75 was not marketed as a smartphone. iPhone is. I.e. completely inconsistent and inaccurate. I would not hold my hopes high for N95, but I'd think N78 has a very good chance of being picked up by them.
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    I hope you're right. If well subsidized I think the N78 could do well here. Not as well as the N95-4 or E71, but at least it's a taste...

    --Sent from my Nokia N95 8GB
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    I feel sorry for you guys over the pond... But why get an ATT dependent phone when you can get a nice unlocked one without all the messed up firmware? Most of you probably reply COST. Well if you add it all up (as Zach did with the iPhone 3G) you probably pay more at the end of the day with a a 2 year contract than if you buy the device unlocked.
    Speaking of iPhone... ATT probably tied down substantial funds to subsidize the iPhone 3G so that must put other devices lower on their list. And also they have to limit the competition. I would take a Nokia s60 device over an iPhone any day, and I'm sure there are a lot of people like me out there.
    And the other thing, why not just get an EU model? As I know they work over there too as long as there is a GSM network around...
    Well these are my thoughts
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    I was driving west on Colorado 285 and stopped at the Coney Island hot dog stand. During tourist season (this particular day was July 4), about 40 minutes will pass from the time you step in queue to the time they deliver your elk dog infused with jack and jalapeños. I spent the majority of that time chatting with the NokiaUSA Denver rep.

    The short answer is: The US carriers dislike useful phones. They especially dislike Symbian phones due to their openness. What few decent smartphones that have made it to AT&Ts lineups have quietly disappeared over the last 18 months and they were fairly crippled as a locked phone.

    As I had suspected all along.

    Kozjegyzo:
    "And the other thing, why not just get an EU model? As I know they work over there too as long as there is a GSM network around...
    Well these are my thoughts"

    Because the UMTS freqs here in blighted states don't entirely line up most of world's 3G implementation. Phone works but no high speed data.

    'Murrica always has to do things a little different. Imagine that all your local neighborhood playgrounds were membership required. You're not allowed to bring your own toys, a small selection of the latest and greatest toys are available but turn out to be cheap knockoffs of the real ones Billy and Jane got from the toy store.

    I agree with koz's post. I paid <500 USD to an Amazon store. Walked into an AT&T store. He scanned the bard code, asked me what number I wanted and then I signed a receipt that came out of a register printer.

    No muss, fuss, money changing hands, blood-letting ceremonies or even <gasp> a contract. In ten minutes (three waiting for the rep) I had a basic plan with medianet working on this glorious little device.

    When people see me pull up POIs on Maps or pop open GMail, they ask me about it. When I get to the cost, they of course recoil in horror. At which time I ask them how much they paid for their iPod, Garmin/Magellan, and how many months they have left on their contract for that POS Razr they can't hear anything out of anyway.

    The contemplative silence that follows indicates that my job is done and I change subjects.
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    Excellent comment, thanks for your insights! A few items of my own to add:

    Regarding the US UMTS spectrum issue, while it is horribly annoying it is my understanding that there is a method to the madness. Similar to the reasoning behind the fact that we use GSM 850 as opposed to 900, we simply have other comms occupying those ranges of spectrum. If those frequencies weren't already eaten, carriers would likely be using them.

    "The US carriers dislike useful phones." I couldn't agree with the sentiment of this statement more. As I see it however, this is changing (with AT&T at least). Last year's coming of the iPhone completely changed the game at AT&T. They bent to every whim of Apple and ended up offering a completely unbranded handset with no carrier-imposed limitations whatsoever. With the success and profitability of the iPhone and now the iPhone 3G as well, AT&T will hopefully have opened its eyes a bit to the money it's missing out on by not offering more devices free of carrier crippling.
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    Thank god here in the EU we have very strict guidelines concerning costumer protection. One of them is that any phone operator selling handsets not of their own brand has to offer the option of unlocking the phone. If you've bought the phone with a plan the unlock fee is high of course but if your contract has ended they unlock it for a few bucks. I think this is correct way to do it, since you might get fed up with your operator but you've payed for that handset, it's yours and you very well should be able to use it with any operator of your choice. Who are they to restrict you?
    Also there is a law that operators have to allow you to carry your number (without any cost to you) if you decide to switch operators. The number is yours, you've bought it they are not allowed to restrict you.
    Roaming prices are also restricted in the EU, so no matter where you are, your per minute, sms, and mms prices can never be higher then the price set by the EU.
    And of course we abolished paying for incoming calls not long after mobile phones became reachable for everyone (back when you had to carry a briefcase size phone)
    (Zach feel free to use my post to start a post on The Outsidr about how consumers should be handled)

    Rob
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    Believe it or not, this one one area where GSM carriers in the US are
    right on track. One a handset is out of contract a carrier will give
    you the unlock code for free. While this isn't advertised, all you
    have to do is call them up and ask. We also have number portability as
    you do. If you are changing carriers, the new carrier will bring your
    existing phone number over to your new account free of charge. I'm not
    too knowledgeable when it comes to roaming. I believe national roaming
    is free with most (or all) carriers but I'm not sure about
    international roaming as I just buy a prepaid SIM whenever I leave the
    country.

    We still pay for incoming calls though... ;)

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