You knew it was bound to happen. With the amazing appeal of Apple’s iPhone, sooner or later other handset manufacturers would come out with devices that claim or appear to be similar. Well it’s happened.

John DiLoreto
Analyst and Editor for
Insight Media

Reuters reported on Monday that leading handset manufacturer Nokia began shipping its 8-Gbyte N95 smartphone, which is expected to hit the stores soon. The N95 smartphone is an upgrade to the original 120-Mbyte N95 introduced last year.

Nokia’s "memory-packed big brother" to the original phone provides up to 20 hours of video or up to 6,000 songs, using RealPlayer software. Wi-Fi is included for roaming to hotspots, and it supports HSDPA-based 3G service. The phone is priced from $550 - $750 dollars.

Also, like the highly acclaimed Helio, the H95 can slide two ways. It slides to one side to reveal a keypad for dialing and typing, and to another side to reveal controls for playing music or video on the 2.8" screen. This is where it differs from the "soft" interface of the 3.5" iPhone touchscreen display.

The new N95 has some advantages, though, such as a 5-megapixel camera, compared to the 2MP camera on the iPhone. It also has stereo Bluetooth. But what really sets it apart is the built-in GPS with Nokia Maps (for more than 150 countries).

Nokia last August acquired gate5, a maker of wireless mapping, routing, and navigation software. With gate5 software preinstalled, the mapping application resides on the phone rather than being wirelessly linked to the device from a distant server.

"We’ve reached a pinnacle with the Nokia N95 and now with the addition of one of the largest-ever displays, built-in assisted-GPS, and improved battery power, the Nokia N95 8-Gbyte takes entertainment enjoyment to another level," said Jonas Geust, Nokia’s VP of multimedia.

Maybe "a" pinnacle, but not "the" pinnacle. The debut of Nokia’s 8-Gbyte N95 is just further indication that that Apple’s iPhone has raised the bar for smartphones to become a lot more sophisticated. As such, devices now try to offer consumers and professionals everything they need on the go for work and leisure. The N95, for example, supports services such as the Nokia Music Store for music and N-Gage Games for gaming. As an introductory offer in Europe, it even comes loaded with Spiderman-3.

With eight gigabytes of memory, the N95 has been called "a good alternative to the iPhone." It even has some advantages, as described. But…

Why do users LOVE their iPhones - even more after using them for a while? It’s not just the features, it’s how they work. As they say, it’s the whole user experience.

For example, the N95 touts a Web browser that "lets a user zoom in or out of a page with a single key press." Sorry, that’s just not the same as interactively stretching and scrolling the image with two fingers.

Apple has shown itself, over and over again, to be a master of product and user interface design. I’ll wait for an iPhone with GPS and Google maps.

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