It's important to recognise that Nokia have done some product placement in the film (no I don't know what it is either), so they'll want to capitalise on this – the 5800 is a good fit, with a huge consumer base, a strong showing of new technology, and a relatively low cost for people buying the device. That's slightly tempered by the fact that it's exclusive to Phones4U in the UK, but the handset is free on a £25 a month tariff.
Yes, that's free. One of the most capable S60 smartphones is walk in, sign the monthly rental, walk out.
The promise of smartphones as a whole was that they would push down from the high end £1000 communicators in the late 90s into the medium end devices and then be mature when they reached the mass market. For all the talk of the Nokia N95 being “the phone that made S60” it looks like that was nothing more than the lead scout, because the Nokia 5800 is selling in huge comparative numbers, entering new markets, and capturing the attention of many people on the high street.
And if it needs some hokey animated screen savers and ancient wallpapers with a good exclusive 'phazer' application at your side, to sell it to the film goers of today, then I'm fine with that.
-- Ewan Spence, April 2009
I might have got my movies mixed up there...
