Forget CompUSA! This is great news.

http://www.infoworld.com/article/05/...riefs45_1.html

http://www.the3gportal.com/3gpnews/archives/007585.html

http://www.m2.com/m2/web/story.php/2...2570D10042AB2D

http://www.iii.co.uk/news/?type=afxn...action=article

http://money.iwon.com/jsp/nw/nwdt_rt...as/money/cm/nw

http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/pro...208&ID=5337945

Watch out Apple!

If they run their shops the way they ran the 770 launch you'll be able to go in and see the devices locked in cabinets. They'll have big signs up saying "Available Monday, Shipping Wednesday"! You'll order then they'll say sorry, those are just display models we can't sell you those. The others will be in real soon now. You go back another day. The sign changes. The available Wednesday has been crossed out and now it says "Shipping Next Week". You go back every day and everytime they tell you a different day that they'll open that cabinet and give you your unit. You go in day after day after day. The sign has had the next week bit crossed out and underneath it is written "Shipping First Thing Next Year". You start thinking by the time you get one someone will have ported Duke Nukem Forever to it! Eventually they do open the cabinet but then they sell those devices to other people in the shop who paid a little more. They keep saying yours will be there any day now. The sign changes again and now written down the bottom in very small letters (there isn't much room left) it says "We're Pretty Sure They'll Ship Before The End Of The Year We Think". You go back to the shop and ask about your 770 and the salesman says "Oh, that. We didn't think you wanted that anymore. You better confirm your order." You scream. on the inside. Where no one can hear your pain. You feel like ripping down the damn sign and whacking the salesman upside the head with it. Eventually, you're now old and grey, they finally open the cabinet and give you your 770. Finally, the moment has come. You stride out of the shop clutching your new precious. And across the road you see a sign in the window of the Apple shop - "New iPod PDA Released Today"!

To me this signals the end of what has been called 'The Channel'. In the past you could only buy many electronics products, including computers, from approved vendors. This increased the retail selling price and the wholesale price, putting profit in the pockets of companies that didn't really add value. It also tended to restrict availability to companies approved by the vendors. Being able to buy electronics (and virtually anything else) online brought this situation nearly to an end and the step that Nokia's taking - opening such locations - is, hopefully, the final curtain call for 'The Channel'.

The idea that you can go to a manufacturer's location to not only buy a product but to also learn how to use it is an idea whose time has come. It's an idea that Apple has tried and walked away from several times and I think it was Apple's mistake to have given up on this. All the traditional tactics for increasing market penetration have been exploited and are played out. This new tactic is designed to help Nokia make the most of its strength and to make it a leader in the new markets that these new devices will open up. Imagine that - a company that sells you products and acknowledges an obligation to provide a place where you can go to learn to make the most of them. What a concept!

Isn't Apple already successfull doing this? If you go to any Apple Store, you will see free trainings and demos being held. But then, big retail outlets such as Walmart, Target, Sam's, are also selling iPods.

Yes, Apple's now heavy into retailing this way. They did deliberately destroy their dealer network a couple of times along the way, though. What's different to me about Nokia doing what they've announced is that some of their products are already available at what they claim is 300,000 locations and that they are moving into the future with products specifically built using a free software platform. In the present-day context that is a significant difference in product design, support and market focus. I myself don't have any use for devices built with software which is isn't based on the GPL or MIT licenses. I guess that's why I'm so taken with Nokia and the 770 - for what it represents as we look to the future.