Dear Nokia, AT&T and MS: Your Silence On The Nokia 900 Is Not Good Advertising
The Nokia Lumia 900 is supposed to be hitting AT&T shelves on March 18 for $99. Check your calendar and you’ll notice that it’s coming up. Check AT&T’s website and you’ll notice…almost nothing. No confirmation of date and unless you’re going out of your way looking for information about the phone, you’ll never find it on your own. There’s no official pricing. There’s no launch web page. TV ads? Nope. It’s almost like this is part of an ongoing stealth marketing technique that’s being tested, like Field of Dreams styles (if you launch it they will come) but this isn’t Hollywood.
In fact, check out this page from AT&T (which discusses 2012 4G LTE releases) and what phone is dominant?
We’ve heard the rumors that Verizon dropped Nokia and that the other carriers and manufacturers are waiting for Apollo. Unfortunately this is the same story we’ve heard since the initial launch. There’s always the next release to wait for whether it was 7.5 or Nokia or something else but there’s clearly no traction in the US here. And beyond that there’s no attempt at traction as AT&T, Nokia and Microsoft seem to be boxed in and with only one device launching on one carrier (and the iPad HD set to take the media’s tech attention for the balance of the week) there’s little more than tech sites talking about Windows Phones and the launch of the “game changing” Lumia 900.
So we do what we do…and wait. I just hope the Apollo mission is a success because at this rate Microsoft isn’t going to make it to the moon…
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Well, if the unlocked 900 hits the streets before AT&T releases their version (couldn’t care less about LTE-only get 1-2 bars of 3G now) guess what I will be buying. And forget about that contract AT&T. GoPlan for me (or whatever it’s called). Will save me $30+ every month. That’s $720+ every 2 years. Can buy a nice phone with that many shells.
+1 to DK. I’m very eager yet at the same time can understand their hesitation to pull the marketing trigger. People are waiting in suspense now to see when it comes out and the price. That is the last little bit of info we don’t know and that buzz isn’t costing them a dime. Once the floodgates let loose on those ad dollars, it will disappear quick. I say keep the commercials for something the consumers can go out and by. No more than a week before launch should they do anything. Just my guess. We’ll see how it plays out. I’ll be getting mine from best buy if they carry if. I’ve been watching inventory to see if it’s even in our system. Hopefully we’ll know soon either way. It will be mine.
I’ll be waiting for Apollo. I have a Samsung Focus S and I’m not going to invest in another device that won’t be upgradeable to WP8.
if you notice att now has the nokia 900 under the 2012 lte phones
Another example of the shambolic handling of Windows Phone. Seems tight from launch we’ve been told to wait for something that will finally kick start Windows Phone, yet we are still waiting . The latest thing to wait for was Windows 8 but judging by the poor reception and attempts already being made to reverse the changes it brings we’re going to have to wait for another saviour for Windows Phone.
I’m afraid I’m with @JeffD. I’ll probably wait for Apollo. I’ve held on to my Surround this long, it’s not much of a stretch to wait.
I called up a local AT&T store to see if they had a release date and some info about the Lumia 900 and they had no clue what that phone was #FAIL by all parties involved AT&T, Nokia and Microsoft.
Where’s all “multi million dollar” markerting campaign they were talking about before CES?
I currently own a LG Quantum and i’m happy with it but i’m ready to move on to a Lumia 900, if only it’ll get here.
And as for the speculation of current devices not being upgradeable to Apollo, I’m sure there will be unofficial ways to still get WP8 on the current devices so i’m not that worried as long as Nokia supports the hardware’s firmware with updates.
There’s an iPhone (Siri or Apps) commercial on like every 20 mins, Get a hint Microsoft on why Apple is successful with consumer devices and why alot of people still think Windows Phone is Windows Mobile.
The Lumia 710 is selling well and the Radar 4G decently. The key thing all of us who read tech blogs need to understand is that we don’t even exist in the psyche of the vast amount of smartphone buyers. Nobody totes in an article from a tech site when they visit a retail store and knows what phone they are looking for.
As long as Nokia and Microsoft is indeed lavishing the RSP’s with the appropriate kickbacks and Nokia markets the Lumia 900 as well as they did the Lumia 800 then things will go well and adoption will increase.
We, the tech bloggers and readers, are the only people who know about the Win8/WP8 situation and need to keep that in mind. We sometimes have a very narrow view of the situation because we get to pick behind the curtain.
Thats because it won’t be released on AT&T till early April.
@Andy:
Source? I keep hearing march 18 from several AT&T retail employees along with the htc titan 2.
Yeah I believe the lumia 900 will arrive on AT&T in March. Its an exclusive for at least 30 days, or at least it should be.