Nokia Still Committed to N-Gage

Despite rumors to the contrary, Nokia says it remains committed to its N-Gage QD gaming-oriented smartphone.

Yesterday, The Inquirer published a rumor that Nokia is going to shut down the facility in Germany where the N-Gage is produced.

However, Nokia has told CVG.com that there is no truth to these rumors.

"Nokia have no intention of shutting down the N-Gage," the site was told by a spokesperson. "We are completely committed to the platform. It's not going anywhere."

Staff Cuts

What made this rumor sound plausible was Nokia's announcement last week that it is going to lay off some of its research and development staff in its Multimedia Group. This is the division of the company that develops the N-Gage line. But Nokia insists this doesn't mean the end of the N-Gage.

In addition, this device is facing intense competition. A pair of new portable gaming devices, Sony's Playstation Portable and the Nintendo DS, have attracted a lot of attention and are selling well.

An Overview of the N-Gage Series

The original version of the N-Gage, which hit the market late in 2003, received very negative reviews and sold so poorly that Nokia quickly rushed out the N-Gage QD, a replacement without its predecessor's flaws.

Both of these were designed to be both a mobile phone and a portable gaming console.

They include a D-pad to make game play easier, but its screen resolution is only 176 by 208 pixels, lower than its competitors.

Like its predecessor, the N-Gage QD allows users to do multi-player gaming via Bluetooth short-range wireless networking.

The N-Gage QD is able to do more than just play games. It is a full smartphone running the Symbian OS with Nokia's Series 60 providing the user interface.

It includes personal information management (PIM) applications, an xHTML browser, and email software. In addition, users are able to download and install other Series 60 applications.

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