My Nokia E71 is dead. In a big way. I left it on top of my car and drove away. When I figured out where I must have left it, I searched and found it in the street near where I was parked. It took a direct hit, and the force of the impact somehow almost folded the phone in half. It was hard to look at. That phone was my primary device for over 9 months, and nothing could keep my SIM out of it for long. Upside? Well, my SIM and MicroSD card survived. And, I'll need a new phone! ;^)
Device-wise, I'm not sure I'll be able to cope with the Nokia N97 (with the current state of affairs, SW wise) until the E72 comes out. I'll REALLY looking forward to the E72. From my perspective it may end up being the ultimate expression of a Symbian/S60 device. As we know, Series 60 was designed and developed for 1-handed use, facilitated by a soft-key driven UI. Grafting on a touchscreen has had very mixed results; see my older post here.
The E71 was (and still is) a class leading device, and it's amazing that Nokia has not been able to generate more uptake in the US. I fear that touch-screen mania has pushed it to the back burner in most high-end consumer's minds here. Thanks to Apple/Android/Palm, most US consumers have been trained to believe that smartphone=touchscreen. That's a huge problem for Nokia USA. Nokia marketing/positioning has not helped. Americans have fallen in love with QWERTY keyboards, and you have to offer one, either on-screen or physical. None of the pre-N97 N-Series devices had them, and the E-Series QWERTY devices were sold as 'business only' phones. The E72, with its 3.5mm audio jack and 5MPix camera, has the chops to change that if it is marketed better. And adding support for T-Mobile USA 3G would help as well. In the mean time, I can't wait for it.
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