It's no secret that Nokia wants to be a big presence in the U.S. cell market again. Remember the Nokia 5100 that everyone had? The phone with no fewer than a bazillion different faceplates and accessories? Nokia wants to bring that back.
Ok. Do you remember the N-Gage? It was a phone aimed at gamers that utilized the fact that it's a cell phone to allow people to play against each other over the network. Pretty cool idea, but it never took off. Maybe it's because no matter how cool the games are, you're going to be hard-pressed to find someone who is going to get a phone because of them. Maybe it's the fact that the kids who did want it couldn't convince their parents to buy it for them. Maybe it's just that it was ugly. As sin.
Fast-forward to this morning when Alex took a look at phonescoop.com...
Nokia has finally begun making a beta version of its N-Gage gaming platform available to users of the N81 multimedia phone. The N81 is optimized to take advantage of N-Gage, which is why it is the first phone supported. N-Gage will eventually support other phones. N-Gage had been delayed twice due to software testing issues. Nokia also launched a new social networking site called Share On Ovi. The Share site takes advantage of technology Nokia acquired when it bought Twango. It will allow users to share photo and video content.Sounds cool. No, really, I think it all sounds pretty darned cool. My only beef with it? Why name your new software and services suite after one of your most colossal failures? What's next, sirs? Crystal Pepsi '08?
There's a bottle of Crystal Pepsi going for $22.50 on eBay...