If there is a company that wants to jump into the netbook market and offer something unique and solid, it would be HTC. It has already produced some rock-solid handsets like the Hero, Eris, Touch Pro2 and HD2, so why not a netbook? HTC CEO Peter Chou mentioned that his company is still very much interested in building a netbook. We think that Mr. Chou may be onto something with the idea that HTC should put out something unique and not just another “me too” netbook. After all, it seems like the entire netbook market is one giant clone army. With the Nokia Booklet 3G coming very soon, HTC is probably thinking that if one major handset manufacturer can pull it off, why not take a crack at it? As long as HTC doesn’t bomb like it did with the Shift, we think it will be a hit.

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We were lucky enough to get our hands on Best Buy Mobile’s entire Holiday Playbook and after combing through it, there’s a couple little nice nuggets of information. Really more confirmations than anything else, but hey, we aren’t ones to turn down info. Before we get to handsets specifically, it seems Best Buy has some pretty hard statistics on sales opportunities — check this out:

• The average store sees over 64,000 customers during October and November
• Out of those customers, only 1% receive an upgrade eligibility check on their accounts
• Of the 1% who get upgrade checks, around 30% are actually eligible for upgrades
• If stores increase the amount of customers checked to 2% from 1%, Best Buy Mobile would see an increase in revenue of around $20,000 for those two months, just off upgrading individuals
• After customers upgrade their handsets at Best Buy Mobile, around 16% of them come back and make other purchases later

They’ve really got it locked down, huh? Smart, smart, smart. Hit the break for some other juicy information we gathered!

In terms of hot upcoming products from now until the end of the year, here’s what Best Buy Mobile is pitching their sales staff to be ready for:

• Nokia Booklet netbook — October 25th launch, and can be activated on AT&T
• Sprint HTC Hero — launching October 11th with a presale going on now
• Sprint Palm Pixi — launch date TBD
• Verizon Storm II — launch date TBD
• Verizon Android device — launch date TBD
• T-Mobile CLIQ — launch date TBD (but we obviously know it’s shipping after October 19th up until general release November 2nd)
• “New BlackBerry devices across multiple carriers” — launch date TBD
• There will be a “host of devices launch in late October and November for all carriers.” Multiple Android launches across multiple carriers and “new technology which doesn’t exist today.”

The rest of the playbook just outlines what stores should do for key dates and Holiday sales planning, other merchandising information and what not.

News that Nokia’s first foray into notebook territory is on its way to the US — as a Best Buy exclusive — managed to get Booklet 3G hopefuls all riled up recently. While we still have no time line in terms of when the sleek laptop might become available, we may now at least know what Nokia and Best Buy plan to charge for the Booklet. According to a purported screen shot of Best Buy’s inventory system, the Booklet 3G will run $599.99. What’s more, the screen shot suggests that inventory began landing at BBY on September 25th and if that is in fact the case, a launch could occur sooner than we thought. $600 may seem like a tall order for a 1.6GHz netbook with 1GB of RAM and a 120GB hard drive but as we’ve said in the past: if this Windows 7-powered lappy comes anywhere close to delivering the 12 hours of battery life Nokia claims, it might be worth just about any price tag Nokia slaps on it.

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Apple’s tablet might have captured our imagination but leaked renders of Microsoft’s secret Courier tablet have captured our hearts. Believe it or not, it’s actually quite difficult to describe the Courier. It’s comprised of two hinged multitouch displays that are each about seven inches diagonal. They open away from each other like a book, and rest in a case that resembles a book jacket. Responding to both finger gestures and the precise touch of a stylus, the screens cooperate with one another to allow users to drag documents, pictures, text and various other elements of the UI from screen to screen. Other notes: there is a home button on the hinge, status LEDs along the side and even a 3 megapixel camera with flash and 4x digital zoom for good measure. We’re dying to know more about and see more of the Courier, something which Giz is more than happy to do as it has made it clear that this is just the beginning of its coverage. Hit the jump to see some absolutely awesome eye candy.

Really digging the Courier after seeing these pics? You haven’t seen anything yet. Hit the read link to check out a video that we guarantee will blow your socks off.

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The good news for Nokia notebook hopefuls this morning is that the much anticipated Booklet 3G is now available for pre-order in Italy. Of course most of our readers don’t live in Italy, but this simply means that Nokia is getting ready to begin pushing its first laptop out to market. The bad news, and it is in fact pretty bad, is the pricing: a whopping €699. In case you’re wondering, that works out to about $1,021 USD. Now as you may recall, we were definitely digging the Booklet 3G when Nokia finally detailed it in full earlier this month. A grand for a 1.6GHz netbook with 1GB of RAM and a 120GB hard drive is bordering on crazy though, even if it does actually come close to providing 12 straight hours of light usage on a single charge. The standard disclaimer of course, is that Nokia products are priced very differently for each region so odds are good that we’ll see a lower price point if and when the Booklet 3G hits US shores. Even if it drops down to $799-$899 territory however, Nokia may have a tough time moving product when similarly-spec’d netbooks can be had for $400. Will a $400 netbook come anywhere close to matching the styling, elegance or battery life of the Booklet? Absolutely not. Where the typical consumer is concerned however, we’re not so sure that matters.

[Via IntoMobile]

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When Nokia’s Booklet 3G laptop/netbook/whatever-you-want-to-call-it was first announced last week, we were pretty impressed. Surprisingly so, in fact. We knew a Nokia laptop was on the horizon but we really expected it to be a boring, inexpensive “me too” offering intended to make Nokia’s entry into the notebook space a simple and attainable one. As it turns out, the exact opposite is the case — the Nokia Booklet 3G is anything but simple, it’s anything but boring and with the announced price of 575€ ($817 USD), it’s anything but inexpensive. Now that Nokia World ’09 is here and the Booklet 3G’s specs have been revealed, we’re even more bowled over than we were before. The bottom line is that the Booklet 3G is a Windows 7-powered beast with an insane 12 hour battery life (and that’s supposedly usage time, not standby), admirable specs and a design that’s just begging to be ogled. Yep, we need it. Hit the jump for the full specs along with a new promo vid and a brief video interview with the designer.

All day computing

• Up to 12 hours of usage time
• Last for a heavy work day
• Windows 7 and Intel Atom processor
• Charge it and go – no need to worry about taking your charger with you

Sleek, robust design

• A stylish, premium design with a chassis made from a single piece of machined aluminum
• 19.9 mm thin
• Three different colors at launch: black, ice (white) and azure (blue)

Seamless connectivity

• Inbuilt WLAN and WWAN enable connectivity to the Internet anywhere a WiFi or cellular network connection is found
• 3G/ HSPA with hot swappable simcard

Sync easily with your Nokia handset

• Integrated Ovi Suite enables easy sync of calendar contacts, media with your device and the cloud

Integrated Nokia services

• Ovi Suite 2.0
• Nokia Music for PC
• Ovi Maps
• Social Hub – keeps track of your social software feeds in one spot and serves as a SMS sender
• Nokia software updater

Dimensions

• Weight (max) 1250 g
• Dimensions (max) 264 x 185 x 19.9 mm

CPU and Chipset

• Intel Atom Z530, 1.6 GHz
• Intel Poulsbo US15W, fanless design

Memory and Storage

• RAM: 1 GB, DDR2, 533 Mhz, soldered down
• HDD: 120 GB, 1.8”/5mmH/SATA, 8 MB cache, 4200 RPM

Display

• 10.1”, 1280×720 pixels, glass window

Battery

• 16 cell, 56.8 Wh, Li-Ion prismatic, removable design

Connectivity

• 802.11 b/g/n, 2T2R
• BT 2.1 + EDR
• Inbuilt 3G modem (data calls only). Different variants: WCDMA: 850/1900/2100 or WCDMA 900/2100 or no modem.
• All modem variants have GSM and GPRS
• Assisted-GPS

I/O ports

• 1 x HDMI 1.2 out
• 3 x USB 2.0
• 1 x headphone out (OMTP 3.5 mm) – with OMTP headsets also functions as audio in
• 1 x DC-in
• 1 x SD card reader
• 1 x SIM / USIM slot

Camera and microphone

• 1.3 MP front facing camera with integrated microphone

Keyboard

• Frame keyboard
• 2 physical layouts: US (78 keys, 17 mm pitch, 1.8 mm stroke) and UK (79 keys, 16.7 mm pitch, 1.8 mm stroke)

Other

• Accelerometer

Inbox contents

• Nokia Booklet 3G
• BC-1S battery
• AC/DC power adapter
• Quick setup guide and warranty instructions
• Headset WH-205
• USB charging multi-cable CA-126

Software

• Operating System: Windows 7 Starter Edition, Home Premium or Professional
• MS Office Small Business 60 day trial
• MS Internet Explorer 8
• HDD protection utility, Hotkey utility , Knock Control utility, Power Profile Switcher, Battery Life utility
• Nokia Update Manager
• Ovi Suite
• Ovi Maps Gadget
• Social Hub
• F-Secure Internet Security 2010 trial

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In case you were wondering, netbooks are still very much in the market and Nokia is looking to join the game. The world’s largest mobile manufacturer has announced the Nokia Booklet 3G which looks to be a promising contender in the netbook space. Like others of its kind, it will support Windows, feature an Intel Atom processor and pack a whopping 12 hours of battery life. Design and construction looks to be top notch with its 10.1 HD display, front-facing camera, Bluetooth and an SD card reader. So far, the Booklet 3G seems to be packing enough punch to knockout its competitors, but this is just the beginning. We’re expecting more details and demos at Nokia World ’09 just days away. From the looks of the video, however, we’re actually drooling for one ourselves. Hit the jump for more details.

Thanks, Brent!

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Well apparently that Finnish blog Puhelinvertailu opened up the flood gates as a bunch of people spent their Saturdays nights/Sunday mornings combing through Finland’s trademark database for anything Nokia-related. Much of what was found, such as a laundry list of trademarked handset names, falls into the “who cares?” category. Yes, Nokia trademarks names like Exx and Nxx so it can use them down the road. There were a few trademarks of interest uncovered however, namely a trademark for “Xseries” — meaning we now have two possible names for new lines of Nokia handsets. If we had to wager a guess: Cseries will encompass handsets that would have previously fallen into various numbered ranges (ie boring) and Xseries will cover Nokia’s upcoming line of Maemo 5-powered handsets (ie not boring). Again, that’s just speculation of course. Trademark miners managed to dig up mention of some other possibly-interesting tidbits as well, such as “Nokia Money”, a potential new platform for mobile financial transactions, and Booklet, a possible name for Nokia’s upcoming line of netbooks/smartbooks. Hopefully at least some of the products behind these trademarks will be covered by whatever Nokia plans to unveil at Nokia World.

Thanks, CanisMajor!

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