The Problem with the Nokia Lumia 800 and why it’s not a hit in the US
Though the Lumia 800 is racking up all the numbers all over the globe, it’s not a hit in the US and for good reason,
You don’t have to be a genius to figure this one out.
I was at a microsoft store the other day to check it out.
It’s a great phone with polycarbonate unibody that’s a beauty, unique curved screen, and sharp display that makes it seem like the tiles are coming at you! I’m not surprised this phone is a hit everywhere else.
so why isn’t it a hit in the US?
Problem #1. Limited availability: Lumia 800 is sold in Microsoft stores (Note: as of the time of writing this, there are only 15 stores nationwide). even Nokia US doesn’t sell it.
Solution: Put this phone for sale in every Walmart store!
Problem #2: It’s sold unlocked. therefore, no price subsidy, and the result: it’s too expensive, One of the major reasons Nokia lost all ground in the US was due to the fact that carriers didn’t carry the brand, hence consumers couldn’t get Nokia quality phone at a highly subsidized price.
Solution: Can someone (At&t, T-Mobile…) please pick up this phone, it’s already proven to be a hit, looking at its track record!
Solution: if you want to sell a bundle, the 800 with either one of play360, purity headset or Luna should suffice, not all three!Problem #4 Price, now this bundle is $899, if you don’t think that’s expensive, let me put this in a a better way: $899 is the down payment for a used 2004 Toyota (if you have good credit). It’s expensive.
Solution: Remove bundle, Sell just the 800, between $400-$500 sounds reasonable (still 2x cheaper than the iPhone)If things stay the way they are right now, then I’ll just go ahead and pronounce the Lumia 800 DOA (Dead on Arrival) here in the states, It’s a beautiful phone, but Nokia/Microsoft made it almost impossible for us to get it.FunFact: Nokia has sold more windows phones than Samsung, LG and HTC combined
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i have a question had elop ever launched a symbian device?
I think all symbia phones were launched by someone else,bear me if im wrong?
Yes you are right…Jo Harlow did launched all the symbian and s40 devices…Elop did not launched ever a symbian.
If he will ever do that is like admitting that a burning platform named symbian can sell 18 milion devices/year and wp7 just 2 milion/year (the biggest wp7 manufacturer – nice joke).
He (Elop) launched only wp7.x phones.
and both Symbian and Windows are better than Android phones.
i remembered elop had shot an E7 unboxing video by himself
awhahahaha
he dint have a choice then. bawhahaha
Fuck Lumia I wish I could have got Symbian belle instead of windows phone.
Buy an N8 then.
Even an E7 works fine with Belle. Can recommend this and includes a full keyboard!
Simple truth is, Nokia and Microsoft have decided that the 900 is their ticket into the minds and pockets of US customers. The 800 bundle is an insult to our intelligence, a now inferior device to the 800, that is STILL optimized only for ATT 3G (2G Tmobile), accessories that nobody in the US has asked to purchase AND a ridiculous price that reeks of the old Nokia high minded, we can price our products high because we are Nokia and it will sell in the US.
Nokia and MS knows very well that this bundle is NOT going to sell in volumes and it is indeed a marketing ploy, an opportunity that if someone walks in, tries the 800 loves the Nokia and WP7 combo yet if appalled at the price, the store rep can kindly recommend the MUCH cheaper up front cost of the 900 and 710 and even still recommend the accessories from online retailers.
The bundle is like a Nokia Tech Display kiosk, to get awareness out…..that you can buy.
Inferior to the 900…
Once PureView is on Nokia Windows, no one will buy Androids or Apple’s. Androids OS is still way behind Mango. PureView puts them decades behind.
The pureview bump is not pretty, and people prefer pretty phones over megapixels. If they can put that camera inside a thin phone, then there’s something good in it, but until that happens, pureview is just a small niché product.
And on your claim of no-one buying Androids or Apples: People don’t buy phones just for the functionality or the looks of the phone or the operating system. People also buy brands, a certain feeling of belonging to a group, or freedom, or ecosystem.
Some people might want to buy the Microsoft brand. Some people prefer the Apple brand. I prefer openness and freedom, so I would never buy a phone from these two companies. I also don’t want to buy Google’s “freedom”.
MeeGo would have been my choice in the future, and some form of it, or something else will be my choice later.
Most people won’t care for these freedom issues, but Microsoft and Windows might still be brands that they don’t associate with “good quality”.
To most people, it’s not about which phone or system is behind the others, it’s the whole package that matters.
People want hype. They want the newest cool and can change brands at a drop of a hat. Nokia said they are working on a smaller sized sensor for Windows that does the same job. At mynokiablog 94% say they will buy the 808 even with its looks that I like and the fact I already have a n9. Put that on a windows Nokia and it will be like watching a snowball going down a mountain. Bigger and bigger and bigger with more and more wanting the must have camera. Why do people buy Apple? Hype. Android? Hype. Here it comes.
are you sure its all hype ? people are not stupid. they can do a lot with ecosystem of apps, right now obscure apps which might be important to a small set of people are catered to by only for android and ios community. used to be symbian, but not anymore
Can get these two things on WP or Symbian?
1. Firefox browser
2. Winamp (or any music app that will allow me to que up songs)
I agree “…people prefer pretty phones over megapixels. If they can put that camera inside a thin phone, then there’s something good in it, but until that happens, pureview is just a small niché product.”
“MeeGo would have been my choice in the future, and some form of it, or something else will be my choice later.”
“…the whole package that matters.”
Well said miemie! And thank you for pointing that out.
Miemie
Pure View is an application technology not a hardware product in itself, the technology can be adapted to other hardware just like any other application, it does not need the gigantic 41 megapixel sensor. I am sure future Nokia products will employ that technology which will bring a far superior camera experience then anyone else can deliver.
My guess is Lumia 800 is a place hold in US for the hopefully released Lumia 900 March 18th 2012
I am not sure, if OP(skydog) remembers the comments from Nokia executives(forgot the name), who said that Lumia 800 in US was purposely priced like this to sell in less numbers. They were not expecting large number of sales.
I think the US market is waiting for the better Lumia 900…As much as I love the PureViews camera, I love the design and style of the 900. Now my dream phone would be the N9, Meego or Maemo, 41 MP, and expandable card slot…
A couple of observations: I had a Lumina 800. The operating system was very nice and the virtual key board was perfect. It puts the Belle key board to shame. But I got rid of the 800 when I discovered there was no way to easily sync it with Outlook. Who would expect a Windows phone that could not easily sync with Outlook! It is an embarrasment to Microsoft and a phone that no business person can use.
That’s because Outlook is only suppose to act as a client to the mail Exchange server and not designed to be a server in itself. The original concept of Activesync piggy-backing onto Outlook was a band-aid solution when smartphones had no wireless data connection, and in practice this causes all sorts of problems eg no way of constantly keeping the list of emails and task up-to-date without having to physically connect the phone to the computer which hosts Outlook, or when the Outlook computer is broken you’ve lost your data.
Cloud exchange server is the BEST solution. Unless you work in an enterprise which has draconian security polices throw out this outdated thinking of “syncing with Outlook”.
Well, I guess there is your answer about the popularity of the Lumina. I have no idea what senshi is talking about. All I know is that I can sync my iPhone 4 and my all my symbian Nokias to Outlook and I cannot sync my (former) Lumina. Remember, it is about the user exeperience not the technology.
And the user experience of plugging into the computer everyday and piggy-backing on Outlook instead of using proper mail syncing protocols like IMAP or Exchange services (gmail/hotmail etc) IS inferior. I’ve used PDAs in the 90s (no radio, no data connection) and WinMo and having to plug in a cable is NOT a superior user experience, if I forget to plug it in one night my phone is already not up to date. I quite enjoy having my smartphone syncing to the cloud server automatically thank you very much.
You don’t like the Lumia because you didn’t do your research, don’t blame it on the technology when you are the one who is behind, not the phone.
“It is an embarrasment to Microsoft and a phone that no business person can use.”
What business person uses Outlook as a stand-alone client? On the other hand, WP7 syncs with Exchange servers quite well, in fact arguably better than any other device.
What service are you using Outlook with? Why don’t you just sync your phone directly with that service instead of attempting to do a ’90s era sync with another client?
Sales volume will give the direction for Nokia.
As long as the rest of the world buys functionality, Nokia will survive and Mr Elop will be forced to accept reality vs MS dreams. He already knows that killing SYMBIAN at this stage the board will have him ousted in no time. This is not a technology discussion but a real-world situation.
I have been working with a technology company in the past, where the CEO announced a product pre-maturely. This caused sales to halt which let the company into cash-flow problems and ultimately into bankruptcy. Nokia is today in a similar situation, despite the quality of their upgraded Symbian based products. SYMBIAN / BELLE are quality software products, on top of the existing hardware, wich also has proven to be reliable.
Except the numbers already prove you wrong – Symbian and feature phones base on Symbian sales have been falling even *before* Elop took over.
“have been fallin” Lie they were growing, just losing market share but still growing.
Ok I looked up some numbers and I stand corrected, but the fact was it was growing at a pace that was much slower than the overall growth of the market. We are talking growth of about 1-2 million units a quarter in 2010 when the smartphone market is growing at double digit rates. So the fact was Nokia is failing to capture a growing market and they needed a different plan.
yes, i’ve been wondering why most people dnt like it. I somuch like the lumia
The Lumia 800 is carrier-subsidized in Canada by Telus. They have live demos in store. The 710 is available on Rogers, also subsidized, but I haven’t seen any live demos.
I don’t think the devices are super competitive at their subsidized prices and they don’t look particularly exciting next to cheaper, bigger and more powerful Android devices. They are both pretty recent additions to both carriers’ lineups, though, so time will tell.
Marketing / Sales can be very complicated. By announcing the models for the US market, does not automatically means that this is a prime focus market for the Nokia WP. They probably are waiting also for the Windows 8 availability.
Interesting difference between the USA and EU.
In the US, no one wants an unlocked phone. In the EU no one wants a locked carrier specific phone.
Personally I prefer the EU, Americans get ripped off by their carriers and they don’t know any better. They also never unlock their phones, even after the end of the contract.
Its clearly not meant to be a volume SKU for US market.
End of story, move along.
No. The point is: why isn’t it “meant to be” so?
Nokia can’t afford to waste time. Every day is worth millions in losses.
Because it was almost certainly offered to the carriers but the carriers wanted something else and this time around Nokia listened to their requests. AT&T wanted one like the 900 – 900 they got! T Mo one like the 710 – 710 they got! Verizon may get the 719.
Article pretty much hit the mark. I plan on getting a white Lumia 800 but will wait until CA or AUS gets it. I do not see this phone coming to the US. Both of these countries use the same 3G bands as AT&T. I will buy unlocked.