Causeway Bay retailers selling Nokia's much hyped N-Gage multifunction gaming device were last week inundated with enthusiasts eager to try out the world's first phone to enable wireless, multiplayer gaming over mobile networks.
The Java-enabled handset, which includes MP3 audio, FM radio, 3D gaming and GPRS browsing, went on sale in 30,000 stores worldwide on Wednesday. N-Gage was launched in four countries in the Asia Pacific, including Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Australia. The device sold out in Australia on the day of its launch and Nokia's flagship store in Causeway Bay reported fast sales last week.
Ten English-language games from well-known PC game publishers are available on the gadget, and Nokia expects 100 game titles to be available next year.
According to an earlier report, Nokia mobile phones spokesman Kari Tuutti said the company hoped to sell several million N-Gage units in 2004. Timo Toikkanen, Nokia vice-president of sales for South China, was more reticent about making sales projections.
'I don't really want to give a projection but we've had a very positive response from carriers and retail outlets with promising order intake, so we are expecting good sales in Hong Kong and three other Asian countries where we launched N-Gage,' he said.
The appeal of N-Gage is the multiplayer gaming. But the existing version does not allow for real-time multiplayer gaming over mobile networks due to bandwidth limitations.