Nokia Booklet 3G: Netbook power with laptop pricing

If Nokia plans to dominate the global netbook market as it has done with smartphones,the company needs to find a better balance of price versus power.

The recent announcement of the Booklet 3G sparked a lot of people’s imagination. Nokia’s lineage in the mobile device market is unrivaled even by relative newcomer Apple on a global scale.

However to think that consumers will pay $820 for a 10-inch netbook blows Nokia’s entire concept out of the water. Netbooks generally start at $250 and rarely crest above $400 from the major netbook makers.

The exorbitant pricing could make sense if the Booklet 3G offered a souped-up processor under the hood. Sadly, the Netbook 3G uses the same Intel Atom processor as everyone else in the netbook market.

There are certainly a few upgrades to the Booklet 3G that are worth mentioning. One is the aluminum case which is largely nonexistent at the value end of computers.

Also bundled into the Booklet 3G is an AGPS chip to allow location-based services on the Booklet 3G. The battery life on the Booklet 3G is estimated at 12 hours, meaning you might actually be able to work a full day on it without re-charging.

It could be that Nokia’s engineers were targeting high-end mini-laptops such as the Sony Vaio line when designing the Booklet 3G, but ended up a little short on power. By pricing the netbook just under a high-horsepower Sony, Nokia has forgotten about the core netbook market.

Netbook’s have grown to represent 20 percent of PC sales based on the pricing not on the power. Nobody wants to buy a lower end processor, nor do they particularly care for 10-inch screens for ultra-mobility.

It’s sad to see that Nokia’s first brush with netbook computing is likely to end in disappointment for users that drop $820 for fairly standard netbook hardware. At least they’ll be able to tell you about it on Facebook through Nokia’s Ovi lifecasting software.

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