5800 sells 500,000 in 30 days, UK launch today
Published by Rafe Blandford at 8:22 UTC, January 23rd 2009
During a conference call discussing of Q4 results Nokia's CEO, Olli Pekka Kallasvuo mentioned that in the last 30 days of the quarter Nokia had shipped slightly more than half a million Nokia 5800 handsets. During this period the 5800 was only available in limited markets. Today it is the turn of the UK, the device also known as 'Tube' will be available from the Regent Street Nokia flagship store from 8am. See my Twitter stream for live blogging and my Flickr stream for live photos of the queues and experience. Read on for more including our PDF download.
Half a million 5800's in 30 days
Here are the relevant details from the conference call:
While giving an overview of Nokia's Q4 2008 results Olli Pekka Kallasvuo discussed the initial success of the Nokia 5800. Despite a limited roll out (in terms of number of markets) he noted that the "Nokia 5800 XpressMusic shipped slightly more than 0.5 million units in the last 30 days of Q4" and that "the response to this device and our new touch use interface has been beyond our expectations". He went on to state that Nokia "will continue an aggressive roll out and marketing plan throughout the first quarter", and that, "the Nokia 5800 has the potential to become our highest revenue and gross margin generating device in a fairly short order".
Update: One million 5800's in 53 days
The day after the original story was written Nokia announced they had now shipped 1 million Nokia 5800's.
"Nokia announced today that it has shipped the millionth Nokia 5800 XpressMusic device, a milestone that coincides with the successful sales start of the device in the UK. The latest in Nokia's XpressMusic range, the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic is the company's first mass market touch screen device."
See also our coverage of the UK launch.
Nokia 5800 in the UK
The Nokia 5800 is launched in the UK tomorrow, Friday 23rd January. On the high street it will intially be available only from Nokia flagship stores (Regent Street and Heathrow Terminal 5). I plan to be at the flagship store tomorrow. You'll be able to follow along live via Twitter on @rafeblandford or @AAS, and we'll add anything of interest to the main site too.
The Nokia 5800 is now also available for immediate dispatch from the Nokia UK online store (with over night delivery as an option). The phone cost £249 SIM free including VAT. Due to currency fluctuations the UK is currently the cheapest place to buy a 5800.
It will become more generally available, both SIM-free and on multiple UK networks one week later.
Nokia 5800 Content
Here on All About Symbian we've published a number of previews and review discussing the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic in detail:
Nokia 5800 XpressMusic announced
Nokia 5800 XpressMusic Preview Part 1 - Hardware, Design and Touch
Nokia 5800 XpressMusic Preview Part 2 - Multimedia Capabilities
Nokia 5800 XpressMusic Preview Part 3 - PIM Applications, Application Compatibility and Conclusions
Nokia 5800 XpressMusic - Steve Litchfield's Review
We're now making these all of these articles available as a single PDF document:
Nokia 5800 Xpress Music by All About Symbian
Over more than 50 pages we give you a detailed look at Nokia's first S60 touch enabled handset.
Nokia-5800-AAS-1.2-20090122.pdf (2.29 MB)
Categories: Hardware, Industry, Events
Platforms: S60 5th Edition
News Discussion
As the 5800 costs an astonishing 30% less in the UK than the Eurozone, I think we can see what Nokia means.
There's absolutely no legal restriction on companies within the EU selling across member state borders, so a UK retailer could sell the 5800 for bargain prices in the Eurozone (and the phone's guarantee would still be valid too as it covers the whole European Union).
I could see there would be a nice little market in drop-shipped 5800's ;)
Isn't it sad that "We shipped approximately 8 million Nokia Nseries and over 3 million Nokia Eseries devices during the fourth quarter 2008." represents a relative failure, and that 113Million handsets over all is a significant drop. Just be thankful Nokia that you have most of the markets covered .. oh except the US and Japan <smile> .. 2009 maybe a tough year for some but at least Nokia have China to sell to.
| Just be thankful Nokia that you have most of the markets covered .. oh except the US and Japan |
Part of the problem is that Japan uses some weird phone standards that no one else does, even their version of Symbian (MOAP) is totally different and Japanese-only. It's a very closed market, sort of harks back to the days of the shoguns really.
| While the 5800 hasn't been sold in the UK that certainly doesn't stop you or anyone from buying it online from say HongKong - even with shipping charges you still do quite well out of it. |
but then, that is still impressive...
The same retailer has droppepd the price of unlocked N85 by £50 since christmas. Now £349.99
Hahaha!
You are so right. Look at the BBC News front page and you'll see this:
"Mac turns 25: Apple's first Macintosh computer celebrates 25 years"
FFS!
Probably for the best though. I really wouldn't want to get anyone's hopes up with the 5800. Although they shouldn't, non-techy users and reviewers are instantly going to compare it with the iPhone and point out that (a) the OS is much less simple, (b) the touch isn't as responsive, (c) it's jerkier when scrolling and (d) can't zoom in and out with 2 fingers as nicely. (ie all the superficial cobblers Apple use to shine up an otherwise average smartphone). Mark my words.
Click "technology" on the BBC website and you get:
"Nokia's N5800 touch screen phone launches - is it an iPhone beater?"
Just like I said.
Unbelievable.
Biased much?
http://3lib.ukonline.co.uk/grid.htm
I'd be interested to see how it fares against the other phones.
|
Ever since Apple changed mobiles forever with the launch of its iPhone, the rest of the industry has been playing catch up. Now, one of its biggest rivals in the market, Nokia, claims to have done just that. |
| But at £250 it's still not cheap and the big question is - is it good enough to take on Apple? |
I really, really wince at the people they have to 'review' these devices. Heres a few gems:
|
"You can view pictures, go on the internet and connect to any wi-fi that's available." |
| Sophie said: "It's a good phone, and cheaper than the iPhone. But I don't think it's as good because the iPhone has a bigger screen and seems to have more to it." |
And to prove the BBC are so into tech:
| Although it uses similar touch technology to the iPhone, the 5800 comes with a plastic pointer pen that makes it easier to use than just with fingers. |
It's reasonable that someone would want to know if Nokia's new touch screen phone is better or worse than the iPhone which is admiteddly quite impressive looking (however I do not agree with the hype about it being super intuitive).
Steve and Co would say that the devices shouldn't be compared as they are targetting different ends of the market however this isn't very realistic for the average consumer.
Also the price difference that people often quote as a massive factor isn't as significant as people make out when bought on contract (which is where 99% of people get their phones!)
|
Originally Posted by Dynite
That headline in itself is perfectly fine.
It's reasonable that someone would want to know if Nokia's new touch screen phone is better or worse than the iPhone which is admiteddly quite impressive looking (however I do not agree with the hype about it being super intuitive). Steve and Co would say that the devices shouldn't be compared as they are targetting different ends of the market however this isn't very realistic for the average consumer. Also the price difference that people often quote as a massive factor isn't as significant as people make out when bought on contract (which is where 99% of people get their phones!) |
The headline is fine, but saying Nokia said that (when AFAIK they havent) is a bit off.
The price difference is an issue, because its estimated that the 5800 will be free on £25 a month contracts. The iphone was most certainly not anywhere near that.
http://www.kauppalehti.fi/5/i/yrityk...elected=kaikki
Not bad.