Nokia Unveils Its First Windows 7 Phone 349
mikejuk writes with an excerpt from an I Programmer article: "Nokia has just launched the Lumia 800, its first Windows 7 phone, and it is basically a modified N9. CEO Stephen Elop said: 'It's a new dawn for Nokia.' He also called it 'the first real Windows Phone,' and said, 'We believe it is the first ever instantiation of the Windows Phone platform that properly embodies, complements and amplifies the design sensibilities of Windows Phone' ... It is being launched in Europe now but the US wont see one until early 2012."
By "modified N9" they mean the N9 but running WP7 bundled with Nokia's navigation application and a streaming music service.
Meh (Score:4, Insightful)
it doesn't stand out. There's nothing in the announcement that isn't something already available on Android and iPhone. Apple and the Android vendors can afford to play games where they leapfrog each other than catch up, then leapfrog again... They're established names in the market and people want an iPhone, a Droid, or A Galaxy as much because they like the brands as because they do something the other guy doesn't. To jump into the market this late in the game Nokia/Microsoft need something new, something to pull people away from their established preferences.
Re:Why ignore US? (Score:5, Insightful)
Europe has a higher population than the US... and even higher than all of North America. And almost all Europeans can afford a smart phone.
And our crisis doesn't hit the customers so much... It's a lot of noise from the banks and governments... and the Greeks seem to be on strike permanently now. But that's just 1 country out of many. I thought that it was the US, rather than Europe, where customers couldn't pay their own bills anymore, and where houses went up for sale becaus the mortgage was too much? That doesn't happen much over here.
Re:Why Windows? (Score:5, Insightful)
Two major factors:
1. Nokia's CEO Stephen Elop [wikipedia.org] was a senior exec for M$ prior being hired as Nokia's CEO
2. M$ offered ~ $1B in incentives to Nokia.
Re:Why Windows? (Score:4, Insightful)
Nokia Has a Billion Reasons To Love WP7 [slashdot.org].
Name says everything (Score:2, Insightful)
Lumia means prostitute in spanish: http://buscon.rae.es/draeI/SrvltConsulta?TIPO_BUS=3&LEMA=lumia [spanish language dictionary]
Re:Why ignore US? (Score:4, Insightful)
Even those in Eastern Europe? Perhaps conditions have improved since the fall of communism quite a bit more than I've thought....
Yes, they did.
Re:To stave off the obvious... (Score:5, Insightful)
Sure sounds like a winner to me!
Re:Why Windows? (Score:2, Insightful)
Because other OEMs are giving their all on android, fierce competition. Nokia will be the only one doing so on Windows Phone.
Probably because no-one in their right mind wants to run Windows on their phone.
Re:Why Windows? (Score:4, Insightful)
WP7 has an interface that may or may not be better than the other two major OSs but is clearly different. Some people may prefer it.
If they make an Android phone, they're latecomers to an already crowded market. Why should someone buy a Nokia device when HTC have a range of products, so do Motorola, so do Samsung, so do LG. What can Nokia do to persuade people to buy their phone instead?
Betting on WP7 is a gamble, but it does have the chance of a big payoff, and Microsoft's backing isn't something to be sneezed at.
Re:Why ignore US? (Score:5, Insightful)
Sure. But the point to stop increasing the debt ceiling is before you allocate the money, not after. If you vote for a budget, and then block the people in charge of paying for the money from doing so, you're nothing but a third-grade political hack who is selling his country down the shitter so that he can get a few more votes from equally moronic voters.
Re:Why ignore US? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Why Windows? (Score:5, Insightful)
Actually, it's far less relevant today than nine years ago. Gates actually had some focus on the products. Ballmer is focused on the money. M$ is much more applicable today than at any time in their history.
Re:Long Game, that could be a spike not a nail (Score:2, Insightful)
Because even with the Microsoft tax, Android phones are selling quite well. WP7 phones are not.
That is something Microsoft can turn around with a large marketing push (which they have not done to date, not on the order they have planned for next year) and really good hardware (which Nokia has now started to provide them).
Microsoft has one other problem, that the sales staff in phone stores push Android devices. If you don't think Microsoft can bribe there way out of that, you have not been paying attention the last 30 years!
Most people know only one thing about smart phones - is it an iPhone or not. Most people have no idea about Android. So if Microsoft can just get in the middle of the recommendation channels then they can easily start latching into Android sales, possibly some iPhone sales too.
Re:Why ignore US? (Score:4, Insightful)
1. You're not as big as you think you are. Asia and Europe are larger markets, especially for Nokia.
2. Your telco system is, well lets not sugar coat it, fucked up. You have two different mobile communications standards (CDMA and GSM) and even when the standard is the same, the frequency is not. This means they need to release at least 2 if not more versions of the same handset. This is an expensive task.
3. Your telco system is fucked up. I know I mentioned this before but it;s that big of an issue it needs to be said twice.
4. Nokia needs to court telco's, modifying software to allow them to shove crap on there and ensuring that end users cant accidentally access premium services like tethering.
5. Your patent system is fucked up.
6. Your patent system is fucked up.
7. Your patent system is fucked up. This needs to be mentioned 3 times because it's that much of a problem, Nokia needs to modify the OS and hardware to avoid the lawsuit minefield of the US.
8 Anti-European sentiment in the US. Asian manufacturers such as HTC and Samsung do not have the same sentiment applied to them.
Put simply, it's cheaper to release in Europe and the same version will also work in Asia and the Middle East. Concentrating on the US market will cut out a lot of other countries.