Wireless Generation and Nokia n810
Update 06/23/2009: Tom Hoffman (TuttleSVC) points out that the Wimax is NOT the same version as the Wifi being considered (read comment). However, IMHO, this does not invalidate the point that school districts have to invest in a completely new handheld device running an OS that is not currently supported. Remove the reference to the Wimax device mentioned in this blog post, and that point remains.
While I personally believe that the Nokia N810 is a great device, asking districts to support yet another device in mass quantities (one per teacher for handheld reading assessments) is obviously met with resistance from districts. Kudos to Wireless Generation (check comments) for announcing a new version of their product for netbooks.
Original Entry:
In previous blog entries (here, here, here, here, here), I’ve shared the challenges school districts face as they are forced to upgrade from one technology to another to keep up with a vendor who has created a product to work ONLY on a specific platform.
One excellent example of an awesome product stuck on a handheld technology is Wireless Generation, which has been forced to abandon the Palm—albeit, slowly, as it has bought up enough Palms to re-sell to education customers—and announced a transition to the Nokia N810, a device I did a write-up on previously.
Our sources have informed us that Nokia has discontinued its N810 Internet Tablet WiMAX Edition, effective immediately. Distributors have apparently been asked to send any remaining stock back to Nokia. The abrupt cancellation is reportedly due to the slow WiMAX roll out in the USA as well as an issue with the current WiMAX switches in use not offering optimal performance.
While Nokia has confirmed that the N810 WiMAX Edition has reached its “end of life” state, the company rep that we spoke with did not wish to comment on any impact that the condition of the nation’s young WiMAX network might have had on that decision…
Source: Mobile Burn, January 7, 2009
Late breaking reports from a Texas school district technology yield the following unconfirmed information:
Hmmmm…A couple of months ago, there was some discussion on Wireless Generation moving from Palms to the Nokia n810 tablets. Today, when I tried to get a quote on the Nokias, I was told that they had also been discontinued (still some available). This apparently happened in January, two months before Wireless Generation announced the move to the Nokia. Wireless Generation now says that there is no currently produced handheld with which they work.
The school district representative above ends the post to a Texas-wide list of educational technology directors with a simple question, “What does this say about Wireless Generation?”
Simply that companies, like school districts, face the challenge of keeping up with rapidly changing technologies. And, school districts, like companies, need to build for flexibility and adaptability.
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