Nokia launches phone-stroke-console

Nokia announced several new handsets at its annual mobile internet conference yesterday, but the most interesting of them from our perspective was a new entry in the Series 60 range, which has been dubbed 'N-Gage'. And despite a babbling, spectacularly incomprehensible press release, we've learnt that N-Gage will have a cartridge-type slot for memory cards, and will run on the Symbian OS. Nokia plans to position itself as a publisher and gatekeeper for those interested in using the platform.

Further details eked out of the web's various pores reveal that Sega is collaborating on the project, which plays games sold separately on the (presumably proprietary) memory cards. The system itself looks like a GameBoy Advance, with a clutch of buttons on either side of a smallish screen and what seems to be a headphone port on the underside.

Nokia is keen to play up the phone-stroke-console's abilities in the multimedia arena, and promises "rich game content" compared to previous, spindly mobile game efforts on previous platforms. There'll be plenty of oomph under the bonnet, apparently.

Sega's involvement on the software side means that we'll soon see ports of many of the firm's famous franchises, including Super Monkey Ball. Of course in reality we won't see them soon, because the chances of N-Gage hitting the common market this side of Easter 2003 are akin to the chance Kylie has of showing me her Jonathan Ross outfit in private.