Microsoft Drops Price on Nokia's 41-Megapixel Phone 197
TechRadar reports today the first major public-facing move that Microsoft has made with its newly acquired Nokia devices business: "The headline-making Nokia Lumia 1020 smartphone-cum-camera is now available for $100 less in the United States, potentially a sign that Microsoft is already ringing the changes at Nokia.
The Microsoft Store stateside is now selling the 41-megapixel Windows Phone 8 handset for $199 (around £127, AU$216) on a two-year contract, compared with Nokia's lofty $299 (around £191, AU$325) launch price.
The price is being matched by the AT&T network, but Microsoft is going one better (for a limited time) and chucking in the camera grip accessory for everyone who picks up the device.
Early indications are that the heavily-hyped Lumia 1020 hasn't been flying off the shelves, so perhaps this price cut can offer Microsoft a boost in the early stages of its Nokia stewardship."
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Re:No (Score:5, Insightful)
It's a juxtaposition of terrible writing, as befits Slashdot nowadays. But from my reading it's Microsoft Store lowering their price, so it's got nothing to do with Nokia (necessarily), just Microsoft alone. Of course, it's easy to see how this would be related to the expected sale.
But as for Nokia itself, the former and future Microsft Stephen Elop actually stepped aside as a CEO with the announcement of the planned sale, so you could easily argue that Nokia is now working more as independent company than they have in the last three years.
Of course, product prices falling from launch prices are so unexpected and unheard of, that there must be something newsworthy behind them.
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I was thinking exactly this. In addition the news about the Lumia 1020 price drop precedes the news about the MS deal.
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Why is dropping price such big news? It happens all the time for a phone and is routine. Multiple Android phones have received multiple price cuts. But it's only big news if it's a Windows Phone since Slashdot seems to have axe to grind. Recently the Nexus 4 got reduced to a firesale price of $199 unlocked.
Also another fallacy I see in these kind of posts is "the price dropped by 33%!". Or, "the price dropped by half!"! All while referring to the on contract price. While the "price" may have dropped from $
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Why is dropping price such big news? It happens all the time for a phone and is routine. Multiple Android phones have received multiple price cuts. But it's only big news if it's a Windows Phone since Slashdot seems to have axe to grind. Recently the Nexus 4 got reduced to a firesale price of $199 unlocked.
Timothy.
Also another fallacy I see in these kind of posts is "the price dropped by 33%!". Or, "the price dropped by half!"! All while referring to the on contract price. While the "price" may have dropped from $100 to $50, the OEM still getting ~$450 compared to $500 earlier. That's a 10% drop, not 50%!
Timothy.
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Microsoft doesn't own the Nokia devices division yet. How can people post stuff like this - it has to go through some regulatory reviews and will close in several months. Not today.
They already owned enough of Nokia and pumped enough money into Nokia to own more. The pity is the camera is all the phone has going for it. I wouldn't buy one, even if that were the off-the-shelf price, with no contract.
As it is, I'm firmly in the Pre-Paid camp, so I look at phone prices without the consideration of a 2-year-swindle.
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My head is still reeling from why we're marketing smartphones by the megapixel anyway.
Nice (Score:5, Funny)
"The headline-making Nokia Lumia 1020 smartphone-cum-camera ..."
The porn industry always loves it when a cum camera gets cheaper.
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It's not the camera. It's Windows (Score:4, Informative)
Here is a Nokia phone with the same camera. Only running Symbian Belle:
http://www.amazon.com/Nokia-808-PureView-Factory-Unlocked/dp/B003U8EN7A/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1378647969&sr=8-1&keywords=n808 [amazon.com]
Re:It's not the camera. It's Windows (Score:4, Informative)
Nokia Lumia 1020: Windows Phone 8, 41 Mpx camera, 2GB of RAM, 1.5 GHz dual core processor, 32GB storage, 1280x768 4.5 inch display.
The price difference isn't Windows Phone 8, the price difference is everything else in the Lumia 1020. But it's GSM not CDMA, so it doesn't work on my network. Thus, I won't be buying one.
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well it's the one with the 41mp.. though iirc you can only take 38mp pictures(and yeah I got one, 808 that is).
BUT BUT BUT.. 299 sounds still like it's a subsidized price, so.. what package do you need to take with it? (the answer is at&t for two years).
dunno if it even was really available yet? it seems to be on preorder in most of the world still..
Just a free camera grip accessory . . . ? (Score:2)
Why don't they throw in a free Surface, as well?
That would make the offer interesting . . .
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>> That would make the offer interesting . . .
Neither run linux, so no thanks.
Suface Crippled (Score:3)
The Surface Pro can run Linux: http://www.geek.com/microsoft/how-to-install-ubuntu-on-the-surface-pro-1539262/ [geek.com]
For how long? Microsoft is moving to a future where only software from Microsoft can be installed on its not your devices. Its not even being subtle about it. I suspect my next GNU/Linux will a converted chromebook
They could give it for free (Score:3, Interesting)
Dislike competition? (Score:3, Insightful)
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Since when does a Windows 8 phone qualify as a quality offering? If it did, then it would be selling well, but it isn't [forbes.com]. Microsoft will never get people to buy their garbage en masse in the phone market, because they can't apply the only business model they have ever successfully implemented: Embrace, Extend, Extinguish". They can't FUD their way into the market. No chance to create v
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A quality offering is not defined by sales. Lots of quality products don't sell well and lots of crap does.
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Furthermore, you don't seem to understand what a percentage is,
Re:Dislike competition? (Score:5, Interesting)
> You want Windows Phone 8 to die so consumers have less choice?
I do want more choice in the phone space, but I don't trust or want it to be from Microsoft - or for that matter propriatary. Why do you want Microsoft to have more control of our digital lives? They have more than enough. Competition works best with a bunch of small players in a market.
So yes, I really just want an actually "open" system to actually be given a chance to shine*. (I'm currently holding on to my Palm Pre Plus which still rocks, but is slowly dieing). I'm currently thinking about getting a Firefox OS device [2], but the specs are SOOO bad compared to my Palm. If I could get it without a dataplan w/ AT&T, I would have already purchased it.
I think the new gen of open source phones that are coming have a better shot (in that the company will actually try*!). Firefox OS, Ubuntu Mobile, Jolla, Tizen.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palm_Pre [wikipedia.org]
[2] http://www.ebay.com/itm/271258990669 [ebay.com]
* Nokia gave open systems 1 release after saying it was a dead platform and then switched to Windows phone. HP gave up on their TouchPads after 2 months of sales.
Re:Dislike competition? (Score:4, Insightful)
Microsoft is a small player in this market. And frankly, competition works best when you have companies that are large enough to fight the good fight. As for controlling our digital lives, Microsoft is getting there but their influence is still largely limited to business systems and traditional markets.
Apple clearly holds the lead in consumer device markets; I am grateful that Google and Microsoft are actively bringing new ideas and fresh devices to the table and keeping Apple from stagnating in the style of IE 6.
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but I don't trust or want it to be from Microsoft
You must be joking. Or you need to scroll down two articles [slashdot.org] so you can read about how iOS, Android and Blackberry are all hooked up to the NSA.
Once you did your research, please do come back and tell us why would Microsoft be any less trustworthy than the other smartphone makers.
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Reinvented?? Is this like how they invented the MP3 player?
About the one big idea they had was a single product line.
Fogetten the "Sooner" (Score:2)
Yeah OK. Here's what Android looked like [idownloadblog.com] before the iPhone.
http://blog.steventroughtonsmith.com/2012/05/2007s-pre-m3-version-of-android-google.html [steventroughtonsmith.com] Google has lots of prototypes including the full screen Sooner. In fact the iPhone is based unashamedly on this Sony prototype http://www.buzzfeed.com/mattbuchanan/the-original-iphone-4-design-prototype-from-2006 [buzzfeed.com] .
The bottom line is Android had full screen phones before the iPhone launch, and it was hardly alone.
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Re:Dislike competition? (Score:4, Insightful)
Competition is good, sure, that's a good reason to hate Elop: he killed Symbian while it still had some coal to burn, and he killed MeeGo before it had its chance -- and even though I haven't used it, by the reviews I've read, MeeGo was a zillion times better than Winblows Phoney. So, FUCK Microsuck, they're a goddamn cancer, I wish they would just die already!
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(I'm not saying I like Microsoft or their products, mind you. Just that open source can't solve every problem with consumer devices.)
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No it's not Windows CE at all. It's a derivative of Windows NT, the line including Windows NT 3.51, NT 4, 2000, XP, Vista and 7. CE isn't even actively developed any more. Your post is basically just full of shit.
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Re:Your loss (Score:4, Insightful)
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Its the best mobile OS on the market right now.
Even if what you say is true, at this point Windows Phone 8 is still likely to join the ranks of technologies like Betamax and BeOS: "Better" solutions that just never gained critical mass.
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Apparently, Nokia agrees with you.
They think the future of their Windows Phones is so bright, they got out of the phone business altogether.
Android growing faster (Score:2)
The adoption rate of Windows Phone is actually growing at a faster rate than Android (and certainly Apple), right now.
...but growing slower, that is simply how maths works. In fact the reason for the quick Microsoft sale is because of shrinking Windows Phone Sales this quarter, as indicated in this article, and its limited success has been at the bottom end whatever you think of that.
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The adoption rate of Windows Phone is actually growing at a faster rate than Android (and certainly Apple), right now.
...but growing slower, that is simply how maths works. In fact the reason for the quick Microsoft sale is because of shrinking Windows Phone Sales this quarter, as indicated in this article, and its limited success has been at the bottom end whatever you think of that.
Yes, and people say that it does great in Mexico, however, Nokia - Symbian drops more than WP8 goes up, so Nokia is loosing mindshare, even if WP8 does great.
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When you have no presence in a market, and most of your customers are about to enter an upgrade cycle to "your new product", sure, the growth rate is high. There again, iOS and Android have a huge market, close to saturated, yet still growing.
This is akin to saying "my herb garden expanding at a faster rate than a continent filled with forest".
High Lumia returns and 'compromise devices' (Score:2, Informative)
Your loss. Its the best mobile OS on the market right now. If you don't know if anybody that owns one, you should try reading a review or two.
Except its not. Android is the most advanced OS by a large margin although that might change (completely?) with iOS 7. Windows Phone 7 was limited at launch and lacked features both the OS it was meant to replace symbian and windows mobile. The internet responded by creating famous lists like this one http://my-symbian.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=44034 [my-symbian.com] . It did get a free pass by reviewers by with reservations...two years after launch http://www.theverge.com/2012/4/3/2921472/lumia-900-review [theverge.com] the reviewers sto
Price Drop? More like Rice Crop. (Score:2, Insightful)
All the price drop in the world can't fix the fact that it's Windows Phone. They could offer a free Lamborghini with each phone and that still wouldn't fix it.
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Re:Price Drop? More like Rice Crop. (Score:4, Insightful)
Maybe he's more of a BMW guy?
I can't speak to others views on windows phones, but I looked at android and windows phone prior to getting an iPhone 5 several months back. I was an existing iPhone user and haven't been impressed with the lack of innovation at apple. The sony and samsung android phones seemed rather good and I also looked at a nokia running windows. The build quality on the nokia was very good and was obviously better than most of the other devices. It felt heavy though. Then I started looking at the OS. It didn't seem terrible and I could figure out how to use it fairly easily. Then I started looking at apps. That's where they lost me. A switch to android would allow me (with some $$$) to get mostly back to where I was on iOS. I wouldn't have access to my iTunes collection anymore. With windows phone, I'd be giving up all sorts of apps.
That was a few months ago, but google has threatened to pull youtube from Microsoft several times. If even youtube is at risk, how am I supposed to trust it's a platform that's going to stick around for more than a year or two. Microsoft keeps starting over with windows phone and breaking backward compatibility.
Re:Price Drop? More like Rice Crop. (Score:4, Informative)
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Except that it couldn't show ads, because Google wouldn't provide Microsoft with the access needed to do so. So it was actually Google's fault.
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Deceptive price (Score:5, Insightful)
Saying it's $100 with a two-year contract is misleading. What's the real US price? TFA indicates £599, which would be about $936.
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PS. slashdot UTF-8 support is awsome!
It's coming in 2067. In Slashdot's defence - no other world wide web site supports UTF-8, and Slashdot is not aimed at a technical audience.
After 3 iPhones, I switched to Windows Phone 8 (Score:2, Interesting)
The primary way it is better is that the screen is so much bigger. This is easy to dismiss, but it makes a ton of UI hacks done for the iPhone needless. For example, the fact that the address bar isn't on the screen all the time is a hack to compensate for the small screen. Then that leads to a need for the hack where you
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But the people flaming the operating system are letting hatred blind them. As a product, Windows Phone is excellent. I don't have any problems with it as a technical product, just like the iPhone is an outstanding technical product. I dislike the business practices of the companies behind each product - but if I told my non-Linux-geek friends th
80% Market Share vs 20% Market share (Score:2)
but if I told my non-Linux-geek friends that the iPhone or Windows Phone was junk, they'd laugh at me and stop taking anything I say seriously.
Then your friends do not represent the Worldwide view. Android is 80% Market share, People are simply choosing not to buy Windows Phone/iPhone in anything like the same numbers.
The bottom line is Linux is for everyone and its Android varient hot 1Billion activations this month.
Re:80% Market Share vs 20% Market share (Score:4, Insightful)
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Re:After 3 iPhones, I switched to Windows Phone 8 (Score:4, Informative)
Microsoft Windows 8 has mimimum requirements [neowin.net] of 4GB of flash, 1GB of RAM, and a dual-core processor. The latest Android requires [android.com] 340MB of RAM and 0.5MB of flash. Windows Phone is bloated, buggy [digitaltrends.com], and an awful UI that cannot be changed (unlike Android where you can put any launcher, or indeed custom rom, instead).
People are not buying Microsoft Windows phones. The reason is that both the hardware and the software is inferior.
Phillip.
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I'm not an idealogue, I just buy a lot of phones. Yes I buy Android on lower spec'd hardware like that, either for holiday where I don't want a $900 phone stolen or for presents. It's slow but incredibly cheap, very good value. I gave my old S2 to my girlfriend and the battery didn't last a day. I bought a cheap battery off eBay, put a custom rom on, and now it lasts for 3 days no problem. Android isn't a flash media centre on those specs, like my Note 2, but it's perfectly usable.
Not only does Microsoft pr
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Really? I bought Apple's flagship tablet when it first came out, and have been stuck on an old version of the OS since it was 18 months old.
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Obviously Android could do with a feature like Reflection [oracle.com]. If only they'd chosen a language that supported it for their platform.
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Uh, just tried this on my Lumia 920, you just long-press on any message you want. Three options: "Copy, Forward, Delete". As least find something else to lie about.
I feel sorry for all Nokia employees (Score:4, Insightful)
I feel really sorry for all Nokia employees, Balmer said we buy them, well what will happen in the future:
1.) they will lay off Nokia devellopers and other employees (@Nokia-Employees, sorry guys but look at Motorolla's mass lay offs)
2.) they will stop producing phones (HTC, Samsung, etc.. can install Windows Phonn(e/y) too)
3.) they will have a brand name with a nice ring, patents at hand to be a pain in googles ass (not that I like to see the we stopped being good guys with itchsing between the buttocks)
4.) Finland will have a fond memory of what was once the most successfull & best develloper/producer for cell phones in the world
Lesson Learned:
Do not let trojan horses wether enter your computer nor your company !
Btw. if you ask the horse if it is trojan and it answers no, burn it !
(The story, that Elop was a trojan horse and so one, was predicted by many others (even here on /.) when he joined Nokia)
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That would kill Windows phone for sure. Samsung, HTC etc are already a bit half-hearted with their Windows Phone offering (I went to half a dozen phone stores at the weekend, all of them carried about a dozen different models of Samsung Android phones, only one shop carried one model of Samsung Windows phone, which looked equivalent to maybe the Galaxy S3 mini). Now that Microsoft has bought Nokia, I wouldn't be at a
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There are not many left to lay off :(
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Xbox Strategy Redux (Score:2)
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Makes Sense? To Whom (Score:2)
, it still makes sense for them to do it. We don't have to like it, but it still makes sense for them.
Actually it makes makes more sense to properly support Android and iOS for its current hostages on Windows. Windows Phone has been unsuccessful for 3 years now. Perhaps they need a different strategy.
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Now contrast that to investing so much money that they lose 100 billion over ten years on their path to reaching a third of the mobile
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By not providing first class Office 365 support on Android and iPhone, they are basically guaranteeing themselves the first scenario. If they add in the second scenario, they are getting the worst of both outcomes.
41 Megapixel Phone (Score:3)
Yes, but can it make calls?
The real problem is... (Score:2)
I use android, and recently, aquired a lumia 520 running the latest windows OS. Basic things like file rename, send file as attachment in an email is not possible.
If you use an app to open a file from web, if you delete that app, all files related to that app go away.
So its kind of like a featurephone.
With here maps, its wonderful for the 520. You get an amazing GPS featurephone with great touch etc.,
However, as you spend more, you can get a smartphone so high end win os pho
Here's what Microsoft needs to do (Score:2)
Step 2: Make nVidia or Qualcomm design the ultimate reference phone design for Microsoft
Step 3: Hire a set of industrial designers who are more about design than industry. Nokia doesn't have any.. don't look there
Step 4: Make a frigging awesome phone.
Step 5: Ship just one model a year. Nokia's "of course we support our customers when they buy a phone from us. We start designing their next phone for them immediat
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They meant to say "cum resistant". Lord knows there's a place for it.
Yeah it rings a bell, something with "goat", haven't seen it in a while here though...
US Market Tiny (Score:2)
If MSFT / NOK want to make any headway in the US market...
Thinking of the US market is what got Nokia *cough* Microsoft into trouble in the first place. The bottom line is of the 238 million smartphones shipped worldwide only 33Million were in the US, and that is ignoring the fact that they probably would have more success in markets they were successful in before...the larger, and faster growing markets like China and India...Something even Apple are desperate to do and will have announcements for Sept 11th.
3.8% Market share worldwide (Score:2)
Windows Phone/Nokia is actually pretty quite well outside the US.
Worldwide Windows Phones has reached the dizzying heights of 3.8% I wouldn't put too much truck in Kantar Worldpanel here is an earlier report http://www.kantarworldpanel.com/global/News/news-articles/Apple-achieves-its-highest-ever-Smartphone-share-in-US [kantarworldpanel.com] it claims that Apple overtook Android over Christmas in the US. It turned out to be a load of nonsense.
Given them 2Billion Already (Score:2)
Microsoft won't own Nokia until sometime next year
Microsoft have already financed Nokia for 2Billion. Its unlikely that they can change there mind. Although really why it being Microsoft or Nokia changes anything.
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$2Billion Advance (Score:3)
Microsoft is not yet the owner of Nokia mobile phone operation. They cannot decide shit - yet.
http://venturebeat.com/2013/09/06/nokia-how-about-2-billion-now-microsoft-ok/ [venturebeat.com] Microsoft have already given $2Billion advance. Its happening. Implying Nokia is making decisions without Microsoft's approval, is simply a strange thing to say especially as the man in charge...is going to be the same!
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I think they've been calling the shots at Nokia since Elop took over there.
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I agree that the whole megapixel thing is marketing hype but I own one and it does take amazing photos.
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Please do your research and read up on the tech behind the 41mp PureView. It's not hype. The camera essentially oversamples the scene to improve image quality.
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I think the parent is referring to a diffraction limited [wikipedia.org] optical system. There's only so much you can do with sensors or software if the optics is inadequate.
There is also the issue of sensor noise and the resulting S/N ratio of such a small aperture.
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The Nokia does have a larger sensor than most camera phones, so it's not nearly as ridiculous as it seems. But. when compared to real cameras, [dpreview.com] the 808 falls short. I'm sure the 1020 is similar.
640kb (Score:2)
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