Nokia N97 Mini too costly?

Bangalore: Nokia has unveiled N97 Mini, a slightly smaller version of the N97 smartphone. The phone has a shorter battery life and less memory, 8GB compared to 32GB in the Nokia N97. The phone has a smaller touch-screen display. The phone is priced at $639 and is expected to be shipped in October. The price is not much less than that of full N97 version, which initially was available for $700 in the U.S. The N97 Mini will also have Nokia's Music service integrated into it. This service will increase the cost of the device but the users will now have a free music download service. Nokia will also be the first mobile phone maker to have a better integration with Facebook. A Nokia user can update his status directly on Facebook through Nokia Ovi account. "We are opening up the technology, allowing more people and companies to be a part of the development of solutions," said Kai Oistamo, Executive Vice President, Devices, Nokia. Even though Nokia continues to be the No. 1 in the overall cellphone market, but as a smartphone maker, it is losing its market share to iPhone and Blackberry. Nokia is struggling the most in U.S., where it is virtually non-existent. Nokia estimates that the global online market will reach 100 billion Euros by 2010 but it is forced to make many innovative changes to retain its No. 1 spot. It has been offering its cell phone users online services, such as music downloads, games, maps and has also created an Ovi service platform. There are many benefits of Nokia N97 Mini but due to the price factor, shorter battery life and less memory, it is highly unlikely that users will go for N97 Mini rather than the full fledged version.