Editorial: Deeper Look at N9 Making Engadgets Holiday Gift Guide.

So the N9 gets a spot on engadgets Smartphone Christmas Gift Guide, now this shouldn’t come as a surprise considering how everyone loves the N9 (and it would make a wonderful gift for that special someone…. A.K.A me); but what interested me is that this is the first time that I can recall where any Nokia phone has made ‘the list’ . Which leads to one very important question: ‘How effective has the new Nokia strategy been at infiltrating the US market???’.

Now it’s not really a secret that most US based tech sites have looked down upon Nokia for the past several years (Gizmodo refusing to review the N8, Engadget jumping at any chance to lash out against Nokia phones or the company), but as of now it seems that all of that is water under the bridge. Even-though there isn’t a single carrier-available ‘New Nokia’ in the US yet everyone seems to be fawning about it’s bold, sexy attitude and looks, it’s been given a complete revival after what most people assumed was the end.

Take a hop on over to any US tech site, you’d be hard pressed to find someone not applauding the new designs and strategies regarding the N9 and the Lumia 800; you can see that everything has changed, there’s no more intentional malice, no more digging deep for flaws in fact it would seem that they want to like the new devices rather than looking for a reason to hate them (and Nokia certainly hasn’t made it difficult for people to join the band-wagon).

Just by reading the gift guide itself you can notice a change in tone towards Nokia, no longer is being different a bad thing, it’s a pro when it comes to the N9 :

If you’re looking for something different — you know, that’s not Android or Samsung — have we got a choice for you. It’s the N9, and dare we say you’ll be the only one amongst your friends or family with a phone running MeeGo. The handset itself is one of the most lust-worthy slabs of engineering we’ve ever come across, which packs a beautiful display and excellent camera. We think you’ll be impressed with the battery life, too. What’s best, this unlocked phone features pentaband 3G support along with quadband GSM. MeeGo may be going the way of the dinosaur, but you can be sure the N9 will have your back.

Short version of the story is that the winds are changing, Nokia seems to have survived the long hurdle that of trying to make it’s way into the US market and more importantly into their Hearts. How deeply into their hearts remains to be seen once the Lumia 710 hit’s T-Mobile, although that’s small beans compared to what goes down after CES ’12, with the promise of a LTE WP coming to US shores and all this talk of of Champagne and 900s.

Nokia the time is now! The US market is ready for you waiting to celebrate- just bring the champagne (see what I did there?).

* Obviously the 800 isn’t available in the US yet, which is probably why it wasn’t on the list.

Category: Christmas, Contract Prices, ideas, Lumia, MeeGo, News, Special Edition