Was N-Gage ahead of its time or did Nokia fail to learn its lesson?

Nokia N-Gage was the company's Nokia Series 60 platform-based mobile telephone and handheld game system that bombed big time. Introduced in 2003, the system suffered from some fatal flaws. For one, its bid to steal the thunder from Nintendo's Game Boy Advanced backfired with its buttons. They were suitable for a mobile phone but not for a game console.

Nokia's system didn't have any titles good enough to attract gamers. And its taco shape didn't help much, either.

But that's all in the past and Nokia appears to have recovered from shell-shock. The company is once again looking at mobile gaming and this time they want to do it right. Starting with research.

And what Nokia research shows is that mobile gamers really want community and connected features with 45% of players using the multiplayer features at least once a month. Nokia also says 62% of the 1800 participants sampled want to share demos with friends, while 79% said they would sample a trial game sent by someone they know.

Other interesting facts from the research include:

• 80% users play mobile games once a week with an average session lasting 28 minutes
• 62%of mobile games are played at home
  
• 61% of mobile games are played while on the move
• 83%of users say gameplay as the key motivator for purchasing a title followed by replayability (79%) and game genre (78%)
• 45%of respondents preferred over-the-air (OTA) distribution of games while 34% went for over-the-internet (OFI) methods

Dust off your N-Gage units. Looks like Nokia is about to raise the dead.