There are a number of elements to the 770 that I think are highly significant... some of which have nothing whatsoever to do with the actual product.
- The 770 is from Nokia, a company of which, until now, all of its wireless-related products involved wireless telephony (except for a tepid Wi-Fi product line and the late, and very lamented Rooftop Broadband Wireless Mesh product line).
- The 770 uses Wi-Fi (and Bluetooth) for its wireless communications link instead of wireless telephony. I think there is an implied message here from one of the leading vendors in the wireless telephony industry - Wi-Fi is rapidly gaining ground with consumers.
- The 770 is a "pure" Internet device. Essentially a handheld browser with some additional capabilities. No walled gardens... just Wi-Fi to the Internet using a via a web browser.
- The 770 is a product where the wireless telephony companies cannot impose themselves between Nokia and consumers and non-wireless retailers; it can be sold over-the-counter at any number of stores without approval, buy-in, and the "we don't want a product that lets our customer bypass us to load content without paying us for the privilege" attitude of wireless telephony companies.
- It's the right form factor... small, handheld, light instead of big and hefty. That translates to much greater overall usability and better battery life and ultimately, lower cost.
To me, the most logical places for the 770 will be used is places in the home like near the television. How many times have you seen been watching television and seen something that you wanted to look up (but didn't want to get up for, and using a laptop for such things was just overkill)? How about the kitchen? The bedroom (no, not for that... for checking email, stock prices, a last look at the headlines before bedding down for the night... things like that.)
It seems to me like the 770 is an ideal device for using with Google's services like a personalized Google News and Gmail, things that push most of the processing to the back-end and don't require a lot of user input other than clicks on the screen with a stylus or a thumb cursor control (which looks inspired by handheld gaming design).
Assuming that the 770 does actually live up to these expectations (I'm in the queue for a review unit when they become available in a few months), I think Nokia will have a real winner on their hands.
Then again... this assumes that the 770's reception isn't usurped by Sony rapidly evolving the PlayStation Portable by leveraging its Wi-Fi capabilities and coming out with good web browser software.
Update May 28, 2005: Although we're operating from entirely different perspectives, it's abundantly obvious that Martin also gets the significance of the 770.
By Steve Stroh
This article is Copyright © 2005 by Steve Stroh