Nokia
6650

The Nokia 6650 was a critically important, but problematic device for Nokia. It was the company’s first phone to support both GSM (at 900MHz and 1800MHz bands) as well as the new 3G WCDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access) technology. This made it the world's first 3G (GSM/WCDMA) handset that was able to work in Europe and Asia including Japan, one of the pioneering countries for 3G services. The 6650 was also the first phone to support the "three soft key" Series 40 user interface. It was also the first Nokia phone to support the ability to record video clips of up to 20 seconds simultaneously with sound. Previous devices had been able to record video but without audio. A neat design element was that the VGA camera could be activated by sliding open the lens cover. The codename for the 6650, Kenny, reflected the challenges the device faced. This name came from the character Kenny McCormick in the animated TV series South Park. In a long-running joke as part of the series, the character Kenny repeatedly suffered a painful death before appearing again in the next episode with little or no explanation. Although the project originally had a different codename, it was changed to Kenny because the project was “killed” so many times during development. A huge number of devices were produced for 3G network testing around the world, and at first it was never meant to be commercialised, but eventually, it did become a fully-fledged product. At the CeBIT trade fair in March 2003, Nokia revealed it had already shipped 10,000 units to a large number of network operators for interoperability testing and EVP of Nokia Mobile Phones, Annsi Vanjoki predicted that the 6650 would be the "best selling 3GPP-compliant 3G mobile phone in 2003." This device was important for Nokia’s aspirations in the Japanese market as it allowed a Japanese 3G WCDMA user to seamlessly roam in Europe and Asia and a GSM user to seamlessly roam in Japan however it never translated into long-term success. Nokia went on to struggle in the Japanese market for many years and eventually abandoned it completely in July 2011.