GearBits

Nokia N-Vasion Begins

"There's going to be a lot of tired thumbs tonight!" says Ilkka Raiskinen, Senior VP, Entertainment and Media, for Nokia.

Nokia has just officially launched the highly-anticipated N-Gage, its entry into the mobile gaming arena. Part-phone, part-gaming console, the N-Gage offers multiplayer games using the Symbian OS.

Specs for the $300 device include a 12-bit color, 176 x 208 pixel screen, digital music capability (MP3/AAC), stereo FM radio, built-in Web-browser, MMS and email messaging....and a tri-band GSM 900/1800/1900 mobile phone.

Nokia also launched its N-Gage Arena community, allowing gamers to share experiences and find other players to play and complete with over the air.

The worldwide blitz is one of the largest marketing campaigns for Nokia, who is seeking growth from gaming to offset the slowing handset market.

Nokia joins Tapwave, which recently released its PalmOS-based Zodiac gaming handheld, in challenging market-leader Nintendo, who says it expects to sell 20 million GameBoy Advance units this coming fiscal year. At E3 earlier this year, Sony also announced the Playstation Portable (PSP), yet another entry in the handheld gaming market.

Nokia says it expects to sell up to 9 million N-Gage units by the end of 2004.