N-Gage
The N-Gage (a pun on engage) is a smartphone and handheld game system from Nokia, announced on 4 November 2002 and released on 7 October 2003. It runs on the original Series 60 on Symbian OS v6.1. N-Gage attempted to lure gamers away from the Game Boy Advance by including mobile phone functionality. This was unsuccessful, partly because the buttons, designed for a phone, were not well-suited for gaming and when used as a phone the original N-Gage was described as resembling a “taco”, which led to it becoming a well-known mocking nickname along with the “Frankenphone”. Nokia introduced the N-Gage QD in 2004 as re-design to the original “Classic” N-Gage, fixing widely criticized issues and design problems. However it was unable to make an improving impact, and with only 2 million units sold in its two years, the N-Gage and its QD model have been a commercial failure. It was discontinued in November 2005, with Nokia moving its gaming capabilities on selected Series 60 smartphones. This was announced as the N-Gage platform or “N-Gage 2.0” in 2007, carrying on the N-Gage name.
