Forget anonymous tipsters and WikiLeaks like scandals, these days it’s often companies themselves that blow the lid off their own announcements. From Microsoft announcing Mango in Romania before their official press conference in New York to Motorola accidentally showing off their product portfolio for the second half of 2011, we’re overjoyed that there are webmasters and public relations people out there who simply don’t know how to use a computer. The latest corporate folly comes from Nokia, who in a blog post on Nokia Conversations accidentally leaked their upcoming C2-06 feature phone. Now we’ve seen this thing in the past, several times, but this is the first time Nokia has actually acknowledged that it exists. When it ships later this year it’s going to be the first Nokia Series 40 device to pack both a touch screen and dual SIM card capabilities. Judging by our past experience with Nokia’s “Touch and Type” devices, we’re not too thrilled at the idea of jabbing our fingers on a resistive touch screen, but hey, we’re not the intended audience for this type of device.
We have to question why Nokia even bothers making feature phones in the first place. In a recent article in The New York Times, they talk about Chinese manufacturers who don’t even have brand names are rapidly stealing share from what was originally thought to be Nokia’s bulletproof share of the low to mid range market. Then there’s Micromax, India’s very own handset maker, who sells Android powered smartphones for prices as low as $125. Does it really make sense to have a feature phone when you can pick something up with WiFi, 3G, and GPS? We don’t really think so.
Anyway, back to the C2-06, we’re expecting an announcement rather soon. There’s an event coming up on June 21st, “Nokia Connection”, that should reveal some interesting surprises.