Quote Originally Posted by Barron's Sept. 29th article "Nokia Calling"
Nokia's biggest expansion move in the consumer market, meanwhile, comes to fruition Oct. 7, when the company starts shipping the N-Gage, a hand-held gaming device. "Nokia sees life going mobile, and life extends beyond voice," says Nada Usina, director of entertainment and media marketing in the Americas for Nokia. Usina says the expansion into game players is an extension of what the company has already been doing. "All our handsets come with the ability to have Java-based games and applications," she says. The N-Gage, however, takes gaming more seriously, and no wonder: Usina puts the global gaming market at between $25 billion and $40 billion a year.

Nokia's most obvious rival in the handheld games market is the Nintendo GameBoy Advance (Sony has a new portable gaming device in the works, as well, dubbed the PSP, for PlayStation Portable). But where the GameBoy largely targets adolescent boys, the N-Gage aims at 16-35 year olds.

The device includes a long list of features you won't find on a GameBoy. For starters, it's also a GSM-based cellphone, which suggests AT&T Wireless, Cingular and T-Mobile will sell it in the U.S. The N-Gage includes an MP3 music player and an FM radio. It can send and receive e-mail; it has calendar and contact features; and it can surf the Web. It also uses the short-range Bluetooth wireless networking standard, which allows multi-player gaming without wires.

With the N-Gage, Nokia is expanding beyond its usual distribution channel, pursuing sales through hard-core gamer retailers, like the Electronics Boutique and GameStop chains. But in the end, analysts say, most N-Gage sales are likely to come through Nokia's traditional channel: cellular carriers. Nokia has been saying N-Gage will sell for $299 at retail, but with expected carriers' incentives, the price could quickly drop into the $99-$149 range, says Soundview analyst Matt Hoffman.

Yankee Group's Jackson says it would be a mistake to expect too much of the first version of the N-Gage. "I expect it will achieve a level of success," he says, "but it's an iterative process. Successive generations will become more capable."

In fact, the initial N-Gage is getting mixed reviews. Shosteck Group's Zweig contends the "form factor isn't quite right," noting that the device requires pulling out the battery to install a new game. She also says the N-Gage is awkward to use as a phone, asserting, "No one's going to do it." On the other hand, the key for any new game platform is software support, and Nokia on that score is doing quite well, with games expected from Electronic Arts, Activision, THQ and most other major publishers. Nokia says close to 20 titles should be available by the holidays.
The rest of the article is about how Nokia's continually going up.

...for once, I think Barron's is wrong...