Just to negate the headline a little bit, it’s not really a secret weapon, because it's there, front and centre, for everyone to see. But if everyone ignores it, it’s like a secret. Isn’t it? And it's not the most important phone, but it's certainly going to be a strong contender for the phone that does the most over the next year or so.
In the words of Nokia, the C6-01 (which is not to be confused with the current C6, not that this could ever cause any confusion!) is a "compact touch-screen smartphone." I'm going to put my neck out here and say that this is going to be the biggest selling Symbian^3 model. And not just out of the initial batch of phones, but out of all of Symbian^3 all told.
That's because of a mix of factors. The first one is clearly the price of the unit. While it's not in the 'budget' territory of something like the 5230, it is in the sweet spot that the Nokia 5800 was in, this brings it into a nice price band with some operator subsidy. That's going to make it attractive at first glance in the shops.
Once people look at the phone (sticker first, hardware second!) they're going to see the C6-01. And they're going to think it's one cute looking phone. The 5800, for all its power, still looked pretty angular and 'hard' as a phone. The new C6-01 has taken design classes and gone for smooth and curved. It sits wonderfully in the hand, and if you were to drop it on the table in your local, I don't think it would be embarrassing to be seen with the device. While the N8 and E7 arguably bring Nokia parity in the high-end smartphone space, the C6-01 puts Nokia clearly ahead in the mid tier of pretty much everything else.
Let's assume that Nokia's marketing for the N8 pushes the message that this is a smartphone that you want to have out in public. Given the consistent nature of the Symbian^3 software stack (with the N8, E7 and C7), any perceived benefits in advertising about the new Nokia should allow the salesman to promote the C6-01 as doing nearly everything that the bigger, more expensive phone can do, "but I'll do it for you for half the price on just an 18 month contract."
You've got the touchscreen in there, the 8 megapixel camera and the HD video recording. You've got the three home screens you can customise yourself (just like the more expensive Android phones over there), and by the way the screen is not only bigger than the equivalent Android devices (cough, Wildfire), it also has the ClearBlack display that’s going to win out handsomely in any head to head comparisons in store.
For those of you keeping score between the imminent N8 and the C6-01, the N8 sports the 12 megapixel Carl Zeiss lens, while the C6-01 clocks in at (only) a regular 8 megapixel and with EDoF tech rather than autofocus, although both still support recording in HD at 720p; the C6-01 doesn't have the 16GB of user storage, just space for a microSD (and a 2GB card in the box); and the screen size is down from 3.5 inches on the N8 to 3.2" on the C6-01.
But one of the important features for the consumer is there. It's got the big blue "F" on the first screen. Facebook.
The phone does the phone calling thing, it can text pretty well and snap pictures, but the power of Twitter, Flickr and the Ovi services aren't as high up the list as the biggest social network on the planet. The fact that a bundle of online services are available out of the box is a huge plus for the C6-01. It's certainly in a much better place to take advantage of the Internet than the 5800 ever was.
Hand this device and its targeted user base to a network, and they're going to be pleased as punch. It’s from a reliable manufacturer, and while it is new you can bet that the support structures are in place. There’s a high build quality and you know it’s going to built like a tank and put through the wringer in testing. I’m assuming it’s going to be pretty attractive at wholesale prices, and there’ll be some dancing around bulk order discounts.
In short, Nokia’s C6-01 hits every check mark required for its biggest customer base – the mobile phone networks. And in turn it hits the check mark for the networks' customers. This is a phone designed for the mass market, even more so than the 5800 was. The tech-nerds know what they want and shout a lot about the high end spec porn, but the mid tier knows what it needs as well. It needs this device.
Nokia’s goal is to provide a handset at each major price point for the market, so to a certain extent the C6-01 is a phone that was built to a specific price, and with a specific feature set in mind, but it’s important to remember that the first Symbian^3 handsets from Nokia are all incredibly consistent with each other and clearly form a single eco-system. That’s not been as clear as it could be in previous years. The ability to leverage all the price points in different markets, but with the same Ovi Store and other associated services, software tech support issues, and use the big ticket items that only Nokia can deliver (free turn by turn navigation and operator billing for the app stores being two of them) is one of the strengths that’s not always apparent. And the C6-01 is the foot soldier that carries all of these to the most people.
Is it about the profit per handset at this point? I still don’t think so – it’s about (re)establishing Nokia and Symbian in the smartphone marketplace, and for that Nokia (or any other manufacturer) can’t rely on a single high priced high specced hero phone to make their fortune any more. They need to have a huge addressable market for developers, they need to have customers looking for their handsets, be it through familiarity or attractive software, they need to have a good story to tell the media (and while it’s a cliché, “we’re back” is a good story, no matter how it finishes).
The Nokia C6-01 is pretty much designed for this period of sales – for volume of sales, while still making a profit.
And while it will likely make the numbering convention even more unclear, I’m expecting the C6-01 to be the handset that has all the small variants and tweaks placed on it for each specific network. This has already been trailed in the Nokia 5230 (look at the Nokia 5228, the V Festival branded 5230 on Virgin Mobile, or the American variant, the T-Mobile Nuron) and the C6-01 is likely to be the multi-tool that can be customised during 2011 to specific network requirements, while still retaining as much platform advantage as possible.
Plus I’d expect some colour variants during 2011 as well – the C6-01 in pink has to be somewhere in the product pipeline, surely?
So out of all the handsets on show from Nokia World, it’s the C6-01 that I think is going to have the biggest impact on Nokia's bottom line. It’s not going to get the geek cred (that belongs to the almost-a-communicator E7); it’s not going to be the vanguard of the new wave of devices (that still belongs to the N8); and neither is it going to be the queen of the catwalk in the fashion stakes (polish up the C7 for that).
The C6-01 is going to be the workhorse. Just like the 5800, it’s going to be loved by millions, it’ll do everything its more expensive family members can do, and it’ll look good in the process. By all means watch the generated lust over the higher specced devices, but just keep half an eye on the C6-01 as it hoovers up market share, monthly contracts and a huge amount of smart, price-conscious users.
-- Ewan Spence, Sept 2010.