Nokia’s design cues feel like they’ve been taken directly from Cupertino, the hardware aesthetics are certainly Apple-inspired.

But then so is the price.

Retailing for just shy of £650 from Nokia’s own online store, for what is for the most part under the hood an average Atom-powered (1st generation?) Netbook, seems a little ambitious. Then again, your average price savvy Netbook buyer clearly isn’t the customer.

As I’ve noted before, the real customer of the Booklet 3G is mobile carriers who, presumably, Nokia is hoping will sell the device onto their customers, subsidized over a 18-24 month mobile broadband contract. Technology-wise, the Booklet 3G – built-in SIM slot, up to 12 hours battery life and GPS – is perfectly suited to this scenario.

And although I haven’t yet seen such offers here in the UK, should they enable the Booklet 3G to reach a price point closer to £199, then next to some of the plasticky looking Netbooks from Asus, Accer or MSI, for example, Nokia’s ‘premium’ device could standout and do better with business types or corporate accounts.

The handset maker also has plenty of brand recognition in Europe and, of course, the Booklet ties into Nokia’s Ovi services – so there’s potential consumer appeal too.

That said, my first impressions are a mixed bag: Great looking, well built, decent keyboard and large multi-touch track pad and buttons. The slightly higher resolution than most Netbooks is also handy. On the downside, it feels sluggish running Windows 7 with 1GB of RAM and has pretty rubbish sound. The 12 hours of battery life is clearly overstated too but to be honest, it still seems very impressive. I’m getting a reported 7+ hours remaining with an 86% charge and I’ve been using WiFi for over an hour already.

I have the Nokia Booklet 3G on an extended review loan so I plan to write an update/fuller review further down the line. In the meantime, leave your questions in the comments.

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Related Articles at last100:

• More Nokia tablet rumors, and what’s this? MeeGo for touch
• Nokia said to be readying iPad competitor – Windows or MeeGo anyone?
• Why is Nokia entering the crowded Netbook market? Answer: the mobile carrier subsidy merry-go-round
• Nokia hopeful of signing up all four major labels for all-you-can-eat music offering
• Nokia’s all-you-can eat music service now “comes with” its own flagship touch screen phone – Nokia X6

Why the world’s largest mobile phone maker would enter the crowded and low margin market of Netbooks, when it should be focusing on how to restore its lead in the much higher margin ’smartphone’ category, is a very good question. The answer, however, is simple.

Carrier subsidy.

Here in the UK, we lead the way in the carrier-subsidy merry-go-round where Nokia does very well indeed out of the whole facade.

The story goes something like this. Consumers sign up to an 18 month mobile contract paying, say, £35 per month (approx $57), and with it they get a ‘free’ and potentially high end smartphone. Of course, it’s not really free but much more akin to a ‘hire purchase’ whereby they’re paying for the device over the course of the 18 month contract. Then, once the contract is up, the carrier entices the consumer to sign on for a further 18 months in return for another shiny new phone, which once again the consumer is actually paying for, even if at a discount thanks to the negotiating ability of the carrier and economics of scale from the handset maker’s point of view.

Ask yourself this: name one other piece of consumer tech that ‘average’ consumers are persuaded to replace, almost without question, on an 18 (or 24 monthly) basis? It doesn’t happen with TVs, DVD or Blu-ray players, audio systems (iPods apart but that’s a different story i.e. poor build quality, brilliant marketing and non user replaceable batteries). And it certainly doesn’t happen with PCs. Until now.

Enter the carrier-subsidised Netbook. Every mobile carrier in the UK offers one of these, and so do PC World and independent mobile phone retailers on the high street, such as the almighty Carphone Warehouse. And Nokia has some of the best carrier relations and brand recognition outside of the U.S.

Why wouldn’t it want a piece of the Netbook action?

On that note, Nokia’s mini-laptop, dubbed the Booklet 3G, will offer built in 3G connectivity, GPS and a hot-swappable mobile phone SIM card slot. Perfectly aligned for carrier subsidy. It’s also a relatively high end Netbook, so presumably the margins will be higher along with the price point compared with some of the most cheep ‘n’ cheerful offerings currently on the market.

That of course won’t matter one bit if Nokia can persuade the carriers and retailers to take on enough stock, who in turn will persuade consumers to pay for their ‘free’ or ‘close to free’ PC over the course of their 18 or 24 month mobile broadband contract.

That’s the brilliance of the carrier subsidy merry-go-round.

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Related Articles at last100:

• Nokia Booklet 3G: Thoughts and first impressions
• Nokia said to be readying iPad competitor – Windows or MeeGo anyone?
• More Nokia tablet rumors, and what’s this? MeeGo for touch
• Nokia’s all-you-can eat music service now “comes with” its own flagship touch screen phone – Nokia X6
• iPhone UK exclusivity to end, the future’s Orange but is it any brighter?