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What the Nokia 9300i has not got: 3G, and camera. So, when is the 3G version?

Nokia has done a very strange thing, and launched an Xmas version of a business Communicator. Buy one for your favourite boss? Well, it's definitely not a personal device: no camera. But it does have WiFi.

Why no 3G? Reviewers don't seem interested. The official line was hard to follow; it boiled down to "if we waited to include that, it would have been late." The important new feature, it seems, was 802.11g WiFi.

Why no camera? "Because it's a business phone, and corporates don't like cameras." Or, as the amphetamine-substitute prose of T3 goes: "The 9300i is a bonafide city slicker. Financial Times and bowler hat not included." Well, yes, sort of; but in that case, why the rush to announce before the Xmas season?

It doesn't ship till next year, of course. "The 9300 was our best-selling Communicator," revealed a source inside Nokia, "so we did a quick update"... but only of a few features.

The simple announcement was winnowed down to a brief summary, but not by everybody. Only a very few commentators did more than reprint the release (noted TMC) with Mobile Burn summarising: "The biggest upgrade for the new Communicator is the addition of 802.11g WLAN connectivity to ease the download of email and associated attachments. To go along with this, Nokia has added support for multiple email clients, including BlackBerry Connect, IBM WebSphere, Oracle Collaboration Suite, Seven Always-On Mail, and Visto Mobile."

Does this mean that there will be a 3G version soon? "No comment" was the official way of saying "yes, but we can't say how soon."

Mobile Burn's quick analysis
Cynical dismissal from TMCNet
The JATO-powered T3 prose going into orbit
The Official Line - press release from Nokia
Imitation, sincerest flattery: spot the toadies who quoted the press release verbatim
Further research: Nokia Communicator, 9300i, WiFi, 3G, cameraphone