Yeah, I don't buy that analogy. For all pratical purposes the iPhone, Pre, G1 are all smartphones, it's silly to insist on calling them pdas just to pretend they're trying to do something different. And there is way more real differentiation between types of cars than there is between phones. Phones are rapidly moving in the direction of every phone having to try to cram every feature possible into the same phone. That's exactly what the iPhone, et al, demonstrated; that it can be a jack of all trades and on most fronts be better than anything that came before it. With the exception of camera technology (for the time being), the race is basically on for everyone to provide the phone that does everything the best. Especially in the domain of high end phones like the N86. Indeed, until the iPhone, Pre, G1, came along it was the likes of the N95, N80, etc., that dominated precisely this domain of phones that cram every possible feature in and are "multimedia computers," as sr1329 notes. The N86 is just one of the latest in this series. But these high end S60 phones simply got surpassed on most smart-phone fronts (video, music, web, email).
By the way, here's Nokia's press release for the N95 when it first came out in 2007:
http://www.nokia.com/press/press-releases/showpressrelease?newsid=1113533.If that doesn't describe exactly what the iPhone, Pre, and Android phones are trying to be then I don't know what does. It's ironic that Nokia may have gotten this idea first, but quickly had its technology surpassed by others.
Okay, I don't know in what sense the Pre or G1 could not be described as a multimedia phone with a physical keypad. Except for the camera, they cover most multimedia features well enough for most users. And are you really saying that the great feature that the N86 has that differentiates it from the iPhone, Pre, G1 is that it has a numeric keypad and is "regular looking"?
What?? It's impossible for anyone to say why they're interested in this phone because they don't own it yet? Do you think people just buy things randomly, having no idea what they are? I for one usually have a reason why I buy something. I don't just close my eyes and grab things off the shelf. Why is it such a big deal to ask what people like about the N86 other than the camera?
Anyway, I take it by your non-response and the lack of any other responses that no one actually has any reason, other than the camera, that they're interested in the N86.