Nokia snubs UK with N9 It might well be the best phone the beleaguered company launches in 2011 - but Nokia won't be bringing its shiny new N9 to the UK. "There are no plans to offer the Nokia N9 at present," the company confirmed to a blog today. Two years ago Nokia anointed its Linux platform MeeGo (originally called Maemo, before a destablising …
Microsoft tells Nokia they can't sell the N9 to anywhere that might be stupid enough to buy a Windows Phone 7, as the N9 will make the WinMo7 phones look even crappier than they already are...
I would love to see the memo that drove this idiotic decision.
Everything Nokia does these days is epic failure. R.I.P.
They might think that people will buy this now and not get a new W7 version when they are release but forget we mostly contracts in the UK for smart phones. You pick the best of the bunch at the time your old contract runs out unless you are made of money.
If people don't buy this one now, they will buy android/apple and will do so again the next time their contract runs out.
Having been a Nokia shop since we started we moved to Android this time round. MS have caused us enough grief with their PC software for us to consider winphone for more than 10 seconds. Don't like the Apple lockdown approach, so then it just became a matter of choosing a manufacturer who sold Android handsets. Doubt we'd move off Android now, and can't for the next 2 years. So unlikely we'll ever be looking at Nokia in the future.
It has also come to light that CEO Elop has recently signed a living will on behalf of Nokia, giving instructions that no attempt should be made to resuscitate the company in the (tragic and untimely) event of cardiac arrest.
The former MS executive continues to administer regular doses of cyanide to his fragile and confused patient in the hope that his miracle 'cure' will soon take effect.
I'm sorry but whether the *nix brigade like it or not, this is a sensible marketing/branding decision. Yes, the phone may be good but Nokia have aligned themselves with MS and therefore it doesn't want to blur the line on what software their phones will be offering.
Btw, for the WinPho haters, it is probably worth you having a play with it, you'll be surprised, you might actually like it!
the glimmering hope that my next phone would be the n9 have now vanished and my only option is unfortunately android. no matter how good the W7 phone is, i won't be supporting Microsoft and its closed ecosystem. once i'm got used to android, i wonder how many years it will be before i switch to anything else?
"..got used to Android.."
That's what Elop seriously missed when he shut the door in Symbian^3. You are comfortable with what you're familiar with. If you bought an Android thingy because a W7 isn't available yet, what's your next phone gonna be?
Oh yeah. I bitched sometime earlier about no apps. on websites (e.g.BBC, Guardian, etc) for any phones other than iPhone and Android. None for Symbian.
Seen any for W7?. Right. Tata, Nokia.
If anyone wants WP7 then they'd already have a HTC or whoever else has released one. There isn't a vast untapped market just waiting for Nokia to release a WP handset. Elop is taking Nokia from being the biggest phone company in the world to being a niche player in a niche market.
It doesn't matter whether you're an MS apologist or a full-on Darth-Ballmer sent-the-Elop-trojan-horse tin-foil-hat enthusiast...
...or maybe just somewhere in the middle and had hoped to buy an N9 - and its successors - in order to own an open phone with a great user experience.
It's quite clear that the Nokia we knew is toast.
.....because I am sure that if it all goes titsup, Mr. Elop will still get a huge payoff as Nokia shrink back to a size where they can only make rubber boots saying 'remember when nokia were a massive phone maker!'
ice.
Divine 'cos there is money to made when things go to shit.
If Nokia / Microsoft are worried that the WP7 devices won't be able to compete with the N9, it doesn't say a lot for their chances against iOS & Android.
And @StrictlySocial, I've only had a brief play with a Mango device, and to be honest I'll reserve judgement until the app updates have come out to make use of the multitasking and the bugs are ironed out (I can't actually get it to add Twitter / LinkedIn accounts, even though the authorization completed, etc).
But the current release is basically a feature phone with a big screen and large price tag. I got one to try out through work that cost £450: using RunKeeper was a joke (brush any of the buttons and it shuts down), Last.fm client that shuts off when you want to do anything else, no Twitter/FB notifications for messages, etc, etc.
When the phone was annouced officially on the Nokia website the US and UK weren't listed.
Geeks loved the N900 but the company only sold 100,000 of them worldwide and had enough stock left over to give them away to employees. I don't think they made any money on Maemo. The worst thing about this is that the same upper management that continually changed direction on Symbian and MeeGo, thereby guaranteeing missed targets and rushed out software, are still in charge of WP7. Jo Harlow's emails already have 'Sent from Windows Phone' appended to the end right now. It's such a kick in the balls for everyone else. And this won't be the first time announced phones will be cancelled because they'll conflict with a WP7 device that in the same price bracket (but has far less functionality).
The Symbian Anna and Belle UI updates are actually really nice, still some things to iron out. There's a feeling in the company that if/when WP7 fails Nokia will come running back to Symbian or they'll just give up entirely. Hopefully if that happens Accenture will have control instead of the Powerpoint addicted fools in Espoo.
They sold less than 100000 in the first five weeks starting back in november 2009. Wasn't even available here after it was released for more than five months. That said, it wasn't aimed at the mass market and it sales exceed expectations. They had planned to manufacture 30000 per month but upped that to 100000. That despite the absolute rubbish job Nokia did in promoting the device.
He's systematically destroying Nokia.
The USAns do like their simple phones just to make calls and maybe text as well, so he's decided not to sell them there any more.
Symbian is actually quite big in Japan so he's pulling out of Japan.
Countries in Europe which would be interested in smartphones aren't getting the N9, instead emerging markets get them, which I suppose means someone from an emerging market would only need to spend six month's salary to buy one, i.e. no sale either.
WTF aren't the board holding him accountable? Surely even they realise he's driving the company into the ground. Or are they all Microsoft plants as well?
No it hadn't - a fair few engineers (note the distinction) hoped that management would pull their fingers out, stop p*ssing around and finally commit to fixing the Symbian UI (formerly known as S60). Anna looks nice but it should've been done years ago. Makes you wonder who sabotaged the whole Symbian thing...
I can't find any indication on the Nokia N9 website swipe.nokia.com, and the 'availability checker' bit seems to be gradually updating by removing countries from the list.
Elop, seriously. What the hell are you doing?
Are you genuinely trying to kill Nokia, or simply incompetent?
From the outside it really looks like those are the only two possibilities.
But they fear it to be good. What a fucking disgrace.
Can you imagine any other company doing that? They fear it'll cannibalise the WP7 market which they don't own, and doesn't exist. This is a company that has given up on their own future. This is a company that deserves to fail.
Obviously Nokia know the N9 is better than WP7 so they stop you from buying the N9. If the N9 is a runaway success in the regions it is available I'm pretty sure Nokia will close down the factory making it.
Who in their right mind would now give Nokia their good money to buy what they clearly consider to be an inferior product?
Buy the N9, and/or boycott Nokia WP7. Simple - any other outcome means that Nokia succeed and every consumer loses.
Possibly the last open OS mobile that will ever be available. If you've used a N900 for any amount of time then you will know that it is damn hard finding a mobile that actually matches it 2 years on, never mind betters it. Expansys got my preorder last week for a 64GB version.
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