Nokia Bets That Gaming Phone Will Boost Growth

Back in November, there was a flurry of stories about Nokia's N-Gage mobile phone that offered a gaming platform as well. Nokia is finally getting ready to release the details of how they plan to take on the handheld gaming market with this phone. The article keeps going back to comparing the effort to Nintendo's GameBoy offering, but there are some key differences. The N-Gage device is still a phone, and does have a huge advantage in the ability to do wireless gaming. As we said when the news first came out, the N-Gage itself may not succeed, but it's good to see the handset makers realize that they need to start offering more than just a funkier design and faster data connections to really grow the market.