14 DAY TRIAL // Today, Finnish mobile phone maker Nokia announced officially that the first Nokia N8 devices already started shipping to users out there. Those to pre-order it in Nokia Online Shops and Nokia retail stores will receive their units first.
Of course, the exact availability of the phone would vary from country to country, and some users would receive it later than others, even if Nokia did not unveil specific info on this until now.
“With the N8, and the new Symbian software, we are bringing a familiar, faster and more intuitive user experience to the world's most popular smartphone platform, Jo Harlow, Senior Vice President, Smartphones, Nokia, stated.
“The Nokia N8 has received the highest amount of consumer pre-orders in Nokia history and we are thrilled to start shipments of the N8, the first of Nokia's new Symbian smartphone range.”
The specifications list of the new device is pretty impressive, starting with the large 3.5'' AMOLED touchscreen display, the 12-megapixel photo snapper with HD video recording, or advanced social networking capabilities.
But this is not all, as the new Symbian^3 OS, as well as the internal circuitry of the device, power some great multimedia features, which should prove one of the selling points of this device.
In order to make sure that the world is aware of these features of the device, Nokia started a quite interesting marketing campaign for the device.
One event in this campaign was held in Rosengård, Sweden, and involved projecting a movie on the largest cinema screen in the world, measuring 28 m high and 51 m wide.
On this screen, the company projected Prince of Persia with the Nokia N8, through connecting the phone to four XLM HD30-projectors via its HDMI-output.
“To appeal to today's high-end buyers, smartphones have to be enjoyable, useful and beautiful. Ease of use, excellent multimedia performance and elegant design are all essential elements of the package,” says John Delaney, Research Director, IDC.
As Nokia states, the new N8 comes with WebTV apps for E! Entertainment, National Geographic and CNN, while being able to connect to a home entertainment center so that one can view HD-quality videos on big screens with full Dolby Digital Plus Surround Sound.
“The latest version of Ovi Store, available first on the Nokia N8, gives easy access to more apps - from social networking services like Foursquare to games like Need for Speed Shift or productivity apps like Tesco in the UK,” the company notes.
The handset vendor was expected to start shipping the device about a week ago, but it seems that the phone was pushed back a little, and that the first units started shipping one week after the original release date, even if Nokia says that no actual delay was involved.
According to a recent article on e'sPhoneblog, the factories that started shipping devices today are those from Beijing, China, and Salo, Finland. The first N8 units should land in stores in Finland on October 14th, the news site claims.
