LTE free Lumia 900 for Europe, Magenta 900 and maybe other colours coming to US? Successor devices coming.
Some interesting snippets again from an Elop interview this time with Pocket-Lint. We’ll focus first on mentions of new devices – well hints anyway.
We have not announced the 900 in other countries. One of the things you should notice though is that we clearly have a pattern of this rolling thunder of announcements one after another and what we are doing more and more is making sure that we are targeting specific devices and specific price points for specific markets.
http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/43956/stephen-elop-ces-interview-uk-exclusive
Translation: Specific devices for specific markets. The precise configuration in the 900 will not be outside the US at that price point. Other countries and other markets will have something more specific.
In the US, one of the things that was actually one of the most important things we did with the Lumia 900 was LTE support. LTE support costs. It costs in terms money for the radio, extra battery life requirement and so forth. LTE in Europe is not so important. It will be, but not today. We haven’t announced anything specific, but clearly there is going to be a steady pattern of new devices and a full portfolio of capabilities in Europe and around the world. There is lots more to watch.
http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/43956/stephen-elop-ces-interview-uk-exclusive
Translation: Why have the 900 outside the US with LTE where the infrastructure is not yet fully there. It would be unnecessary costs for European customers. Europe will get a 900 variant but without LTE and a slew of other devices.
When asked why no Magenta Lumia 900 in the US,
“I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw other colours at other times.”
http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/43956/stephen-elop-ces-interview-uk-exclusive
Translation: Magenta and possibly other colours of Lumia 900 coming
When asked if Elop liked Cyan,
“I do, actually. I like all the colours. One of the advantages of testing devices is that I get to see these crazy colours that the market hasn’t seen yet, which is fun.”
http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/43956/stephen-elop-ces-interview-uk-exclusive
Translation:
Elop talks about folks in the US asking for the 800 in the UK and then the US folks got the 900 and then the UK people asking for the 900. . He says
The message we are trying to deliver is: 710, 800, 900, and there is going to be more.
http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/43956/stephen-elop-ces-interview-uk-exclusive
Translation: More Lumias to come. The US folks might have something to yearn about again as UK people might get a 9xx+ version again.
Some interesting stuff:
- Elop is a pilot. I may have conveniently forgotten this bit of info if this was already mentioned at some other time.
- They’re going after popular applications that most care about first for the WP phones (and therefore Nokia Lumia phones).
- Good net promoter scores (NPS) for Lumia. Focusing on how well their phones are received, if Nokia’s making good enough products to make people trying it want to recommend it to others.
- Should people who bought a 800 feel cheated with the 900? He says no. He’ll still carry the 800 because it’s a beautiful device and he likes the form factor and size. Seriously, it’s not like you bought a Titan and Titan II comes out so soon after.
There’s other stuff but we’ve heard that in other interviews.
Cheers Stuart for the tip!
Category: Nokia
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Hey, thanks for reading my post. My name is Jay and I'm a medical student at the University of Manchester. When I can, I blog here at mynokiablog.com and tweet now and again @jaymontano. We also have a twitter and facebook accounts @mynokiablog and facebook.com/MyNokiaBlog. Contact us at tips(@)mynokiablog.com or email me directly on jay[at]mynokiablog.comSubscribe
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Sites That Link to this Post
- Mobilissimo.ro | January 22, 2012
- Nokia Lumia 900 Rumored to Shed 4G LTE Radio for International Launch | January 23, 2012
Hopefully we do get some LTE phones, there is LTE in Europe, maybe not as much as in the U.S. yet, but if there’s no phones then there’s no reason to invest in a network either.
Why would carriers here invest in LTE if they there’s no phones to begin with….put out the phones and the carriers will upgrade.
Doesn’t work like that here. Telcoms start the upgrade procedure once they have the required permits for it. I.e. Here in Finland telcoms are deploying the LTE network even though there aren’t that many devices. Futureproofing.
Nokia has an LTE phone (or probably more than one) when the carriers ask for it. Sorry, but even in Europe carriers are the main customer for Nokia and Nokia is unlikely to put LTE on a phone in a particular market (through carriers at least)unless the carriers are supportive.
The reason US Networks are deploying LTE is because their bandwidth is being saturated on pre-4G technologies. They have to upgrade to support the increased usage.
Once that point hits in Europe, they’ll need to do the same. On a hunch that might take a bit longer to happen as Europe uses Band 1 for UMTS which as a high frequency band has a shorter range and therefore requires more towers to provide coverage, and more towers means it can support more users before getting overloaded. The US is using the original AMPS frequency bands to provide coverage to lower population density rural areas, so they don’t have as many towers deployed.
lol….
Microsoft charging Zte phone manufacture $27 per license for Wp7 license.
http://www.slashgear.com/microsoft-gets-about-27-for-each-windows-phone-zte-makes-19209898/
Do the math guys.
If Nokia sold 100 million Wp7 smartphones then it would cost $2.7 billion. WTF.
Symbian was thrown away because it cost $1 billion in development. Meego costs much less but still dumped.
Good plan Nokia, now you are not saving money but also putting your future up for Ms.
Symbian was ‘dumped’ not just because it cost a lot but because development was frigging slow. No ways about it. Look at what it managed from 2009 to 2012. Look at what Maemo already looked like in 2009. Then look at Symbian again from 2010 and look at Maemo from 2009. Also look at iPhone from 2007.
As to the price Nokia is paying for licences. Do you know without doubt how much Nokia is paying? How much is HTC paying? How much is Samsung paying? In the article which you point out, it says HTC and Samsung reported around $10-15. So that suggests that not everyone is paying the same price no?
I’d actually think that, because of the heavy investing in WP, during the 2012 Nokia might not pay much at all for the licences.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Nokia paid no licence-fees for the 710 & 800.
If you say development of Symbian is slow, the development of WP was even slower. MS actually delayed the release of the first release of WP by an year. Also, when MS developed WP, they didn’t had to give backward compatibility to old WM6.x apps.
While in Symbian’s case, backward compatibility was an ever present. This creates issues for the developer and takes time to get ready.. The original plan for Belle(Symbian^4 during the Symbian Foundation days) was not to give backward compatibility for the old resource-based (Ankon) apps. But somehow that didn’t make it to the end..
Backward compatibility is overrated. Symbian had too much baggage. Hence the slow development. Look at the growth of Windows Phone apps. It is currently at a rate, on par with iPhone and even better than Android or Symbian. Go google for it.
Naturally, WP has less apps since it is 4 yrs late to the game. But that doesn’t mean it won’t build up to a good critical mass over time. Given the rate it is showing now, it is VERY promising.
Then there is the other equation – developer support. MS can and will grab good developer support. While Symbian was losing developer support way even before Elop came along. You do the math.
looking at the crippled nokia devices with windows phone i know where the development was slow…
Yup, I’m totally loving the awesome keyboard of Symbian in February 2010 and the awesome browser, and how mail functioned perfectly, and how it synced with all my calendars all the time. No wait, all of that was shit. Not sure really it’s even addressed in Belle.
Good basics covered first at least.
At least it (Symbian 3) doesn’t give us memory full errors anymore (compared to S60)
Oh that’s good at least. Now are you sure that’s actually the case or if you just haven’t encountered them? Because I meet Symbian users who claim to have never had that problem.
Yes it does unfortunately. Used to happen a lot with my N8 on Opera.
Agree that Symbian has its flaws and weaknesses. Its development was too slow but it still sold well.. It is doing incredibly well even now considering what its CEO had done almost a year back.. Its Symbian which is keeping Nokia running right now.. Not the outrageously-marketted-but-still-selling-low WP.. MS is still ashamed to give out WP numbers and insiders say Nokia hasn’t shifted as many WP devices as it wanted in Q4, 2011.
+1 Jay.
UI is king. Some people find it hard to accept.
I’d go with reliability. Most people enjoy the apps that they can get, but really want just a phone that works. Look at Scott Adams’ response to Brandon Watson’s challenge. He represents a pretty large portion of the population there.
Agree. Easy to use and reliable. That’s it really.
The cost of symbian development was mentioned a lot and yes it was the one of the “main” reasons used for going Wp7.
I don’t want to start a debate but I feel every OS as good but it needs talented coders and proper development roadmap. A few talented engineers could have streamlined the symbian development.
No matter how you put it Jay, many will always feel that things should have been a bit different. Dumping meego and just saying it will” live on ” is a set back for developers. It’s been an year, nothing to show for Qt , no devices, no roadmaps, except yeah “next billion”. This is not considered a decent step in encouraging developers to stick to Qt.
I too remember Elop saying that one of the factors for WP was development cost involved for “modernizing” Symbian. I couldn’t figure out how that could be as Nokia would need to pay MS as much in licensing fee for 20-30M WP devices as it usually spends on developing Symbian yearly..
And I agree with you saying Qt has been sidelined a little bit even after their Qt for next billion strategy. I’m not sure how much it’ll benefit the featurephones(even though I’m really excited about it) given that very few users on feature phones download apps and stuff. Qt on the smartphones make more sense given the number of apps users download.. I haven’t heard\seen anything related to Meltemi(Qt-based S40 successor) yet even though it was suggested that it would be out early this year. No leaks of videos\photos yet.. Would appreciated if somebody in the know-how comment.
Nokia would have to spend a lot more on Symbian to modernise it than they were at the time.
That was Elop’s statement but there are others who said it wouldn’t have cost that much.. And Even if it did cost more, the loss of revenue\profit Nokia encountered during the last 3-4 quarters was more than enough to pay that.
The major OEMs pay around $15 for each WP device manufactured. ZTE pays $27 because it get lot more than just the OS license.
Do we know the gross or net payment for Nokia is the same? No we don’t.
Are the licencing fees for all manufacturers the same? No, they are not.
Is it likely that Nokia’s licensing fee (gross and in particular net) is lower. Yes it is.
Did Elop state there is a significant net transfer of resources to Nokia through the MS deal? Yes he did.
Do we know its the truth? No we don’t.
Is it possible there is truth to it? Yes it is possible, in particular given market regulations.
We will just have to wait for at least until Q2 2012 results to see if a turn around has started to happen.
Hopefully Q4 11 results are close to break even. Hopefully Q1 12 results are on the black.
Elop had stated (when the Nokia-MS deal was announced) that Nokia would pay the full licensing fee for WP. The deal doesn’t allow Nokia to get the license at a reduced price. When asked what is the benefit for Nokia in this deal, Elop said that Nokia’s services on MS Ecosystem is the benefit which is valued in millions (or was it billions??). Nokia will be paid for Nokia services used by non-Nokia devices but as of now those are Lumia-exclusive..
MS’s Q4 results are out and it doesn’t look good for WP. http://www.slashgear.com/microsofts-windows-phone-sales-silence-speaks-volumes-19210138/
afaik the licencing fees do vary by amnufacturer so full may meen different things. plus, I sain gross or net lisencing fees (i.e the latter taking into account all other transfers). the overall net transfer is what ultimately matters.
The net amount will only be changing when Nokia gets paid for its services. Sadly that is not going to happen because of the Lumia-exclusivity..
well, yeah, we don’t know that with any certainty at all. ms may well have paid a one off or over time incentive payment just to get nokia to use wp (or, given them a lower licensing fee which i still think is more likely). ms/bing is/will be using navteq maps not only on wp but accross all ms products – payments for that may already have started. once nokia starts starts contributing to the wp os (be it in form of code, ui design, chassi, radio, camera driver whatever design) ms may pay nokia or lower the licensing fee. ad revenue sharing. sevices/apps. marketing budgets. logistics chain related deals. list could probably go on.
this is a deal between two maasive corpororations on the arguably most compliacated consumer eletronics products and services. it is VERY likely to be a complex, long contract with a million provisions we really are just guessing in the dark.
only financial results will allow to see the overall impadct of the strategy. but we will probably never know much of the details.
I don’t understand why there are still people crying about Symbian. Cmon guys, move on already. If you like Nokia (like I do), continue to support it (even if moved to WP). If you don’t, there are lots of other brands for you to try, and even in the meantime, Nokia is still rolling out Symbian phones that are more powerful than before.
Why Symbian and Meego were dumped, was covered amply. It is not just about cost. Nokia is a company trying to survive. Hard decisions had to be made.
Then back to your comments… MS and Nokia had a special deal. I don’t know what’s the specifics of the deal, but it is possible that Nokia is getting some preferential rate (or maybe for free) on those WP7 phones. MS also gave lots of money to Nokia for Marketing WP. This is certainly not the “cost” of how many billions that you are crying foul about.
TLDR: move on already.
That seems to be the problem here in Australia.. the complaints from Telecom sector here is, although they have rolled out LTE to some sectors and others to come online very soon, there are very very few LTE devices available to sell yet..
There is no doubt , the delay is subject to insufficient supply of LTE devices, not infrastructure..
Telstra has a major campaign going at the moment in an attempt to be pushing “4G” phones out the door, but like Paul said, not many phones support it, no point supporting the technology. At least not yet anyway.
Lumia 900 coming to Australia soon. that’s that what the guy at virgin mobiles told me
LTE ?
He might have said 900, but i a pretty sure it would be 800
“Should people who bought a 800 feel cheated with the 900? ”
not really.
they feel cheated when they see somebody with a n9….
have manged to try the lumia 800. it felt to me like a cheap rip off. small screen buttons..brrr…
“they feel cheated when they see somebody with a n9….”
Err… no? They fell ‘oh look, that’s nice, but it lags a bit and the keybaord/mail isn’t as good as the 800′.
Enjoy your choice. Don’t presume to understand those of others.
I’ve seen folks who own both claim they prefer N9′s VKB overall.
Different strokes for different folks…
They’re pretty universal in saying email’s better overall in WP.
Apologies if I don’t respond.
Not subscribing, to busy lately.
The keyboard on the N9 is superb, the haptic is amazing. But overall usability, the Lumia keyboard is much more accurate, better layout, more intelligent with prediction and changing keys. It just means I can type faster more accurately. I really would like it though if Nokia could put that haptic feedback into WP too.
Email…I’m having problems with email on my N9 as it doesn’t seem to like fetching them unless I touch the phone and press refresh. That and it sometimes still has the load thing where I’m waiting for my email to be downloaded. I also don’t get why it can’t automatically sync my gmail calendar. I didn’t have this expectation until i had a WP that just fetched my gmail calendar.
But that’s just those points you mentioned. Of course N9 has many other strengths.
I think its mostly taste, i kinda like the lumia basically because the OS looks nice and feels very responsive. But the vkb is miles behind the one on the n9 imo. To he fair though, the n9 vkb is the only on screen keyboard ive ever been able to use. And another reason why i pick the n9 over the lumia 800… I try to swipe on the lumia and gets myself pissed off!
on swipe, nokia pulled an apple on me. Gave me a function i had no idea i needed, and now i cant live without it 
where did he say that the 900 will be released outside of the us? Different pricepoint and no lte fits for 710 and 800 already
A follow up for the N9 would have caused More excitement,
Well, there’s a lot of excitement on the net after the battery update for the Lumia 800.
A lot of users have encountered issues with soft key lighting and battery performance after that update.
Too bad that kind of news is ignored by this blog, it’s hallelujah WP all the way.
I still don’t see the point of buying a Lumia 900, since better models would come out just a few months after its release…
Then why buy anything? There are always going to be better models coming out, regardless of OS or oem
The reason US Networks are deploying LTE is because their bandwidth is being saturated on pre-4G technologies. They have to upgrade to support the increased usage.
Looking forward to Lumia 900 in other countries. This is something that easily can compete with the popular “bigger than 4 inch” phones now – like HTC Titan and Samsung Galaxy Note.