13 May 2009

UAE Consumers Will Be Among The First
In The World To Be Offered The Nokia N97

UAE’s National Newspaper has posted a nice N97 walkthrough video presented by Nokia’s Henri Mattila, and information that consumers in UAE will be among the first in the world to get their hands on the hottest Nokia Nseries device.

At a preview of the Nokia N97 in Dubai last week, Henri Mattila, the Nokia head of marketing for Nseries handsets in the Middle East, said Gulf countries such as the UAE and Saudi Arabia would be among the first in the world to get the device.

Focus groups and research panels were held among consumers in both countries during the development of the N97, in recognition of the importance of the markets for smartphone sales. Despite a hefty price tag estimated at €599 when announced last December and the global economic slowdown, Mr Mattila said he expected the phone to perform strongly when launched here next month.

“It is expensive, but you know that when somebody really wants something – when they see it and feel it and know that it is a perfect fit for their life – in this part of the world, with such aspirational consumers, they will make it happen,” he said.

The video reveals nothing new about Nokia N97 and the only thing that caught my attention is the light that shines through the font cover! The front face is obviously not well painted or the thickness of the top layer is to thin and what happening is that illumination light is shining through the front face of the phone which looks pretty ugly if you ask me!?

*click to enlarge

I hope this is just a proto issue and that final production model will not suffers from this problem and that users will not be forced to switch from white to black version of the device!