Many apologies for not posting lately, but I have a good reason: I have been touring Scandinavia this weekend, enjoying the best of late summer in Sweden, Denmark and Finland. But it hasn't all been rest, I have been watching the world's most advanced mobile cultures outside of Japan at work.

One highlight so far was stopping in the new Nokia flasghip store in Helsinki yesterday. Not very big, but dazzling inside, thanks in part to a good use of atmospherics from lighting and video. Very sexy, definitely a new way to sell mobiles, based on experience, not price point and operator fetaures.

The picture to the left is of a printing station and some nice N73s all lined up. On the wall you see video shot by celebrity directors using the N93. I got to handle everything from the E61 to the latest N series, and play with media toys connected to some of these handsets. Quite nice.

The hard part of course is absorbing the impact of non-subsidized prices. Some of these handsets will run your upwards of €800, and that's if you don't wander into the (empty) Vertu section at the back, which looks a lot like a Breitling display.

Still, it's good to see Good Technology getting its day in the limelight. Open one of these stores in LA and see what happens.