Nokia just announced the N97, its first flagship touch phone. The device is evolutionary, or if you prefer ‘marginally improved’ in some areas, compared to, its predecessors, the N95 and N96, while it includes a touch-screen and the new Symbian S60 5th Edition. The new phone seems largely irrelevant in the post-iPhone world and it is — at least — frustating to see Nokia so powerless and arrogant at the same time.

The company’s arrogance and indifference to the shift the industry has experienced, could very well spell the end of its dominance and the beginning of its gradual demise. Already, its once undisputed technical and market leadership has vanished, its share shrunk by competitors that entered the market much later than itself — Apple, the company behind the iPhone, entered the mobile phone market in mid-2007 and it has already redefined smartphones, with everyone, including Nokia, taking some of its cues in new products; that the N97 is a ‘touch’ phone could be considered proof that Nokia is indeed taking the iPhone seriously. Why it’s not more like it, is of the essence: is Nokia actively trying to avoid creating a clone, or is it just unable to do so? Given the inferiority of the N97 software and the superiority of its hardware, I guess the latter. Nokia can only make so much in a year or so.
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