The Nokia N9 looks nice and I suspect it’ll appeal most to brave IT geeks who want to be different. The N9 runs on MeeGo. Nokia are currently rushing to get their WP7 handsets out to market.
This is the first pure touch screen phone, according to Nokia, who point out there are no front-facing buttons at all. Unlocking the device requires a double tap of the screen. It’s “all about the swipe” seems to be focus of the marketing messages and, indeed, that link points to a “swipe” sub-domain for the phone.
Nokia explain that the team wanted that intuitive way to use lots of features; hence the swipe. If you’re in an application you can swipe from the edge of the screen to go home. All the important things Nokia believes users do with their phones have been brought to the surface and given a simple action interface.
The web browser is built on webkit 2 and offers “wide” HTML5 support. Interestingly, the phone is also NFC enabled and that might well grow in appeal as more retailers and outlets experiment with NFC solutions. Apple seems unwilling to make the NFC gamble and this may well play into the hands of their competitors.
What do you think? One for you or will you be giving it a miss?
