All About Symbian - Symbian, Nokia and S60 unwrapped.
Nokia 6730 - Vodafone's exclusive S60 device
Published by Rafe Blandford at 14:28 UTC, May 29th 2009
Nokia and Vodafone today unveiled a new S60 device that will be exclusive to the Vodafone network. The Nokia 6730 Classic, which will be available from June, runs on S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2, has a 3.2 megapixel camera, 2.2 inch QVGA screen and integrated GPS. It continues the push of S60 into mid-tier devices, using the platform to take services to the mass market. Read on for more.
The device will ship with Nokia Maps, but will also include Vodafone services including its Vodafone Music client.
The Nokia 6730 Classic follows on from Vodafone's previous S60 exclusive - the Nokia 6124 (a repackaged Nokia 6120).
The Nokia 6730c is, effectively, a repackaged version of Nokia 6720 Classic hardware and specification. The 6720c was announced at Mobile World Congress earlier this year. However while the 6730c does share the same hardware, there's several changes to external design; for example it does not share the distinctive curved bottom of the Nokia 6720c.
Key points for the Nokia 6730 Classic
- Dimensions of 112 x 46 x 12 and a weight of 83g
- 2.2", 240 x 320, screen
- 3.2 megapixel camera
- GPS receiver
- HSDPA and HSUPA connectivity; quad band GSM and dual band WCDMA
- 2.5 mm audio jack and stereo Bluetooth for audio out
- 50 MB of internal memory, microSD card slot (supporting cards upto 16GB)
- 1050 mAH battery
- Runs S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2 on Symbian OS 9.3
Press release extract
Peter Becker-Pennrich, Director of Terminals Marketing at Vodafone says "The Nokia 6730 is a great all-round handset - just as perfect for mobile internet users as for music fans who want to take their tracks with them. This product follows a successful line-up of Vodafone exclusive devices from Nokia and is another great example of our collaboration. "
With the Nokia 6730 classic, getting lost and being out of touch with your friends could be a thing of the past thanks to the mobile navigation capabilities on the handset. The services offer accurate turn by turn instructions helping both drivers and pedestrians to find their way. It also provides access to comprehensive point of interest databases and both white and yellow pages information making it easy for the user to find their destination, whether that is an address, a company or even a person.
"'Feature packed' describes Nokia 6730 classic really well. With its iconic design - available in sleek black or white - the device is a perfect upgrade for Nokia 6500c or 6300 users or anyone seeking an elegant device, optimized for mobile internet and navigation. What's more, this mobile comes with industry-leading power-saving features and accessories" says Gustavo Eichelmann, Head of Vodafone Global Account Team, Nokia.
It is interesting to note that Nokia and Vodafone are positioning the 6730 as an upgrade to the 6500c or 6300, both of which are higher end Series 40 phones. It is another indication of the blurring lines between the bottom end of Nokia's S60 portfolio and the Series 40 range.
News Discussion
Anyone who's in any way disappointed by the hardware spec on this device has missed the point entirely.
Am not going to buy one of these but for people complaining:did you forget 6120 classic?
btw,I hate Vodafone brand.
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If you want S60/Symbian to grow and grow, and get more supported, and more users for things like Ovi Store (to make us developers more money and give more support to the platform) you need to make S60 more available and more widespread. Sticking it into lower priced, non smartphone level hardware is one of the best ways to do this. Anyone who's in any way disappointed by the hardware spec on this device has missed the point entirely. |
Online services aren't a "who's got the highest spec" competition, it's more about growing userbase as quickly as possible. Something like 85% of people buy non-smart phones, and even with smartphones most sales are mid-range models like the 5800 or 6120. The number of people who actually own a high end smartphone is tiny (iPhone's global market share for example is currently 1.5%).
Nokia's main strength is in selling very very large amounts of mid-range and low price devices. If they want to make Ovi services succeed, it is absolutely vital that they put it on devices of all price levels because medium and cheap devices are the ones that lots of people actually buy.
Maybe I've been smoking crack, but I can see a time when series 40 is consumed by S60 (or its future iterations).
If and when we reach that point, will AAS be heralding 'new mundane Nokia phone' every other week? I really hope not.
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Originally Posted by morpheus2702
If and when we reach that point, will AAS be heralding 'new mundane Nokia phone' every other week? I really hope not.
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These days Nokia is pushing Symbian even on low end phones for the masses. Symbian sadly is no longer the OS of choice for the power user. We have a flurry of crap phones that don't differ from each other that much.
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Originally Posted by Arthur
Agreed. Used to be that every new Symbian phone was worth announcing. Each time it brought something new to the table.
These days Nokia is pushing Symbian even on low end phones for the masses. Symbian sadly is no longer the OS of choice for the power user. We have a flurry of crap phones that don't differ from each other that much. |
The point in case: "...that don't differ from each other that much."
I've had a N95 followed by a N95 8Gb... the greatest phones I've ever owned. From a long time Windows Mobile user, I jumped ship with the N95 and was amazed at just how advanced it was compared to WM devices of the time (2007).
2 years later, for the 9 things S60 does better than WM, the one thing I do miss is the ability to customise the phone. The home screen, numerous settings etc. I could go out and buy any Nokia S60 handset right now and within an hour, will know that phone inside out. Sure, the argument for is familiarity so you don't have to spend days getting to grips with your new phone.
But to me that's half the fun of a new phone! Buying another S60 device to me would be like only buying 'half' a new phone because of its familiarity. I'm sure the same can be said of anyone moving from one Sony Ericsson, Samsung, LG etc. feature phone to another.
I acknowledge that the N97 will most likely open up a new dimension of customisation and Symbian Foundation releases even more so. I've still a few months on contract left, so no urgent decisions required... but unless the N97 is reasonably affordable and not a complete turkey, I'm beginning to look at the Samsung I7500 Android phone with envious eyes, and wonder if the 3rd gen iPhone will win me over?
Your iPhone stat is incorrect, a couple of months ago there were 37 million combined sales of iPhones and IPod Touches, so iPhones alone will be significantly less than that. There are 4.1bn mobile subs as of about the same time, so that works out to about 0.9% of phone users even if we imagined all 37 million are iPhones. Realistically I'd guess iPhones are about 0.5% of all phones.
Smartphones in general were about 10% of global phone market, but that has risen slightly in the last year. S60 is just below half that I think, so about 5% or about 10 times iPhone deployment.
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