OK. I know MMMO is a better term since RPGs aren't the only genre in this category, but hey, I had to make this title as long as possible.
When I picked up a N-Gage QD way back in the day, It was actually mostly for one game only, Sega's Pocket Kingdom: Own the World, the first massively multiplayer game that I had seen that worked well on a mobile platform. I was actually rather sad when the system didn't do well (in the US at least, go EU!) since I was really intrigued by the prospect of engaging virtual worlds that players could access on the go.
Well, years later, Nokia is at it again with their N-Series phones, namely the Nokia N81. This device has some nice specs and all your new standard features for a higher end cell phone including, music/video playback, GPS, internet browsing, etc. However, the N81 also dedicated buttons and operating system functions for gaming, which also include N-Gage compatibility. The interesting thing about the Wi-Fi/Cell connection and the gaming bridge is that there are a variety of simpler games (especially in Asia) designed for online multiplayer action such as Tetris, Mahjohng, Poker, etc. that work fairly well, and without lag because of the limited amount of data that needs to be transferred.
I'm extremely excited for the implications for the design and implementation of MMOs like Pocket Kingdom that are still engaging with very strict technical limitations. Perhaps we'll see a surge of portable MUDs as the advance guard if the opportunity to link private servers arises. Turn based strategy games seems like the first genre that would benefit from this because the need for on-the-spot precise data transfer isn't as important.
Nokia N81 Specs via the EU site
A few Pocket Kingdom screens:
