At $799, Does Nokia’s Netbook Have a Chance?

Nokia_Booklet_3G01_lowresWe won’t know the whole story surrounding Nokia’s Booklet 3G netbook until September 2nd, but apparently, there’s a speculated price out there. $799 says Sascha over at Netbook News (translated). Sascha has fairly solid sources, so I’m inclined to believe the price, even without the full specifications. And that $799 could be a European price which may not necessarily translate exactly in your local currency.

Since Nokia doesn’t traditionally make computers they may not be getting the best deals with a manufacturing company. Put another way — if you owned a computer manufacturing center and were cutting a production deal with HP, Dell, Apple and Nokia, who would you give the best pricing to? I’d give it to the traditional computer sellers who have a far better idea of how many units they’ll be moving. Given market share, their production runs would be larger as well, which should decrease the production cost per unit.

Computer manufacturing economics aside, are there any takers of a Booklet 3G at $799? We don’t have the official specifications yet, so Nokia could surprise us all in a few weeks. All About Symbian has the most comprehensive list I’ve seen:

  • Intel Atom Chipset (Z530 running at 1.6 Ghz). No fan, which means near silent running.
  • 120 GB hard disk
  • 3G / HSDPA and WiFi connectivity, plus integrated Bluetooth for local wireless communication
  • 12 hour battery life
  • 19.9 mm thick x 264 mm width x 185 mm depth
  • 10.1 inch glass HD ready display
  • Front facing video camera mounted, on top of the screen, for video calling
  • 1 x HDMI port (for HD video out), 1 x integarted SD card reader, 3 x USB ports, 1 x audio port
  • Integrated A-GPS
  • Stereo speakers mounted on the front right and left corners

There isn’t anything in this list that gets me excited or justifies a price of $499, let alone $799, and that’s taking the anticipated 12 hour battery life into account. I’d rather save $300 and buy a second 6-cell battery for my Toshiba NB205, which would give me 16 hours of battery life.

Obviously, we’ll have to wait and see what the Booklet 3G really offers before passing judgment. But even if it offers everything above and more, $799 would be a hard sell for a small WinTel netbook. Maybe this is a better way to pose the original question: what would the Booklet 3G have to offer in terms of hardware or software to fetch $799 from your wallet?

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