Karri Ojanen’s wonderfully written review of the N97 points out something very noteworthy:
It’s a little different here, I find. When the iPhone 3G first came to Canada, I found out that there were people, young people, here that didn’t know cell phones could play music or take pictures, and not just that - they hadn’t even ever owned a cell phone of any kind before the iPhone came along and was oh so cool. Not that I think it’s bad not to own every damn gadget that’s out there. I just want to point out some of the differences between Europe and North America in this market.
Just more evidence for my opinion that the “closed” business models of the carriers — namely, restricting devices, selecting capable phones primarily for businesses and pricing consumers out of freely using data and common features like MMS — let Apple walk in and steal the consumer mindshare for smartphones in North America.
