Simon’s Blog

It’s taken a few years, but at last mobile technology has reached the point where genuinely compelling smartphones can be made with form factors that will appeal to the mass market. The point is that, to appeal to the mass market, mobile phones have to be easily pocketable; and that imposes some size constraints. Until now, these constraints have meant that small form-factor smartphones have been rather disappointing. However, that’s about to change.

First off the mark with a compelling and pocketable smartphone is Nokia with its new N76, which should be for sale in the shops within the next few weeks.

In the illustration below, I’ve compared the size of the Nokia N76 with the maximum combined dimensions of the top ten best-selling mobile phones of 2006. As you can see, it falls within the size envelope of the mass market phones. I’ve broken out the best-selling phone of all - the Motoroloa RaZr - in the illustration; and also shown much anticipated Apple iPhone for reference.

To get a feel for the N76, take a look a the video below.

As you might be able to see from the video above, the Nokia N76 looks a lot like the Motorola RaZr. However, the N76 is a full-featured 3G smartphone with a large QVGA screen. The N76 should be great for making phone calls; playing music; browsing the web and checking e-mail on the move; and running a broad variety of third-party applications. This is going to be a massive hit for Nokia.