Having not (ahem) paid to get into the conference (ah, the power of the press pass), I didn't feel as if I should be butting into the debate, but as the questioner was waxing lyrical about smartphones not being desired by the mass market ("aren't smartphones just for high end corporates?"), I felt like shouting "HAVE YOU WALKED DOWN A HIGH STREET LATELY??!!".
For example, I took a stroll through Reading town centre yesterday. In close proximity there are about 10 network or phone shops and all but one had HUGE emphasis on the Nokia N95. In most cases it was by far the biggest and most obvious product showcase and dominated the main window. There were also A-frame poster boards outside some shops, also with huge N95 photos and slogans.
If this isn't the smartphone going mass market then I don't know what is. It's completely true that 99% of people signing up for the Nokia N95 at (for example) £50 buy price plus a 18 month contract at £35 a month are expecting an extremely high-end, converged phone and it's true that 90% of them probably won't have heard of Symbian OS or even S60, but with this level of market awareness I'm guessing it probably doesn't matter at this stage - the interest and the sales figures will bring their own inertia.
If you'd said 3 years ago that the flagship Symbian OS smartphone would be the object of mass market, High Street adulation on this scale, noone would have believed you...
Comments welcomed!
Steve Litchfield, 21 April 2007