Brief Summary:
Invention/Product: Nokia N-Gage (and N-Gage QD)
Company: Nokia
Country: Finland
Period: Released in October 2003 (N-Gage QD in 2004), production ceased in 2005.
Essence: A hybrid of a mobile phone and portable gaming console, operating on Symbian OS.
Nokia's famous failure in attempting to capture the portable gaming market. Despite a strong brand and interesting concept, the device suffered from terrible ergonomic design (especially when used as a phone - "sidetalking" or "taco phone"), inconvenient game card swapping, high price, and inability to compete with either the Game Boy Advance or regular phones.
Creation History
In the early 2000s, Nokia was the undisputed leader in the mobile phone market. In an attempt to expand its influence and capture a portion of the rapidly growing portable gaming console market, dominated by Nintendo with the Game Boy Advance, Nokia decided to create a hybrid device. The N-Gage was introduced in late 2002 and released in October 2003 with substantial marketing support. It was positioned as an "all-in-one": phone, gaming console, MP3 player, radio, and organizer.
Operating Principle
The N-Gage operated on the Symbian OS S60, allowing it to run not only games but also standard smartphone applications. Key features:
- Gaming Capabilities: Games were distributed on MMC cards. The device featured a color screen, D-pad, and control buttons located on the sides of the screen, resembling a gamepad.
- Phone Functions: Supported GSM communication, SMS, MMS, WAP browser.
- Multimedia: Playback of MP3 and RealAudio, FM radio.
- Wireless Connectivity: Bluetooth for multiplayer games and accessory connections.
Claimed Advantages
- Device Convergence: One device instead of a phone and a separate gaming console.
- High-Quality 3D Games: For its time, the graphics in some games were impressive for a portable device.
- Multiplayer Games via Bluetooth.
- Wide Range of Smartphone Functions based on Symbian OS.
Why Did It Fail?
- Terrible Design and Ergonomics:
- "Sidetalking" / "Taco Phone": The speaker and microphone were located on the edge of the device, requiring it to be held sideways to the ear for calls, which looked extremely awkward and became the subject of ridicule (earning the nickname "taco phone").
- Inconvenient Game Changes: To replace the game MMC card in the first N-Gage model, the phone had to be turned off, the back cover removed, and the battery taken out.
- Button Layout: Buttons suitable for gaming were not always convenient for dialing or typing text.
- High Price: The device was significantly more expensive than the Game Boy Advance and comparable to regular smartphones, without offering clear advantages in either aspect.
- Lack of Quality Games: The game library was small, and there were not enough exclusives to attract the mass gamer. Ports of games from other platforms were often of poor quality.
- Competition: It failed to effectively compete with either the Nintendo Game Boy Advance (which was cheaper and had a huge game library) or other mobile phones (which were more convenient as phones).
- Piracy Issues: N-Gage games were relatively easy to pirate.
In 2004, Nokia released an improved version, the N-Gage QD, which corrected some ergonomic flaws (a normal earpiece, "hot" card swapping), but it did not save the platform. Sales were low, and by the end of 2005, Nokia ceased N-Gage production.
Ahead of Its Time?
The idea of converging a phone and a gaming console was undoubtedly promising and ahead of its time. Modern smartphones successfully combine these functions. However, the execution of the N-Gage was so poor that it rather discredited the idea in the eyes of many. Nokia failed to find the right balance between gaming and phone functions.
Can It Be Revived?
The N-Gage as a brand or device is dead. However, the idea of a "gaming smartphone" is successfully alive and evolving (for example, Asus ROG Phone, Nubia Red Magic, etc.). These devices take into account N-Gage's mistakes, offering powerful hardware, quality screens, thoughtful gaming ergonomics, and full smartphone functionality. Nokia later attempted to revive the N-Gage gaming brand as a platform/service for its smartphones, but this attempt was also not very successful.
WTF Factor
The main and most memorable WTF factor is, of course, **"sidetalking"**. The mere fact that a world leader in mobile phone manufacturing released a device that had to be held to the ear like a taco or a small entrenching tool for talking still causes bewilderment and laughter. How could this pass through all the stages of design and testing in such a large company?
Also, the need to remove the battery to change the game in the first model is an engineering oversight level that is hard to imagine for a company of Nokia's caliber.