N-Gage to quietly dis-Ngage?

ALTHOUGH NOKIA HAS admitted to some pretty stringent cuts in its R&D budget, its entire N-Gage games unit looks in doubt, according to rumours afoot.

The INQ's Nordic mole claims Nokia is plotting to get rid of its entire Bochum, Germany facility by Q1 2006. That's not just N-Gage R&D we're talking about, it's the production facility as well.

Nokia was refusing calls at press time. Sven Mole was pretty much adamant that this is the end for the N-Gage as we know it, although Nokia could easily switch N-Gage production elsewhere.

Last week Nokia admitted it was dispensing with around 250 R&D staff in Finland while around 100 or so other R&D staff would go from other locations.

There had been some surprise that Nokia had also admitted that it was abandoning its 'image ware' line of cameraphone compatible necklaces. It had been assumed that the high end smartphone/cameraphone sector was where Nokia's key strength lies.

It'll be interesting to see if Nokia can regain the high ground next month @ 3GSM Cannes. Nokia knows what my number is. We've tried enough times in the last two days to get a denial of this rumour. We'll be happy to run the denial, if Nokia folk can be bothered to pick up their phones. µ