Lumia 900 now in KSA stores ( + mini rant )
Got tipped this the other day from Syed ( @spunkybloke ), about the Lumia 900 arriving in stores in KSA. I pushed the post back until I could get more information from him, and now we have it, as well as official confirmation, so I thought it was an appropriate time to post.
So as of Thursday, the Lumia 900 was officially available in Nokia Stores. It’s reportedly being priced at 2299 Saudi Riyals, which is approx. 614 USD. Not sure if that is a decent price for the device or not. Currently, the Lumia 900 is only released in Black and White. Below is an image of an in store display.
Here’s a quick peek at those pamphlets sitting behind the device.
Cheers Syed and anyone I may have missed in the tips section!
On to my rant:
I think this is plain stupid! First reason, WP7 lacks Arabic support, therefore a large demographic of the market is essentially locked out from the device (unless they speak English well enough). Second reason, it is 7 months after announcement. Some will argue better late than never though :p Third reason, WP8 devices are less than 5 days from an announcement, and they WILL have Arabic support. Fourth reason, still with regards to WP8, why pay a lot of money, for a device that has a successor in the very new future, plus, no upgrade path. (Sorry WP 7.8, you don’t quite count in my eyes).
*ends rant*
What do you guys think? Live in the KSA? We’d love to hear from you!
Michael
About the Author (Author Profile)
Hi! My name is Michael. Like the others, I'm also a Student, living here in Sydney. I have a real passion for the latest technology and I'm a real Nokia buff! My aim is to keep those of you, like myself, updated with the latest in what's going on in the Nokia World. Currently sporting N9 & Lumia 820, with other Nokia devices in my posession. Get in touch on Twitter via @MFaroTusino, Google Plus or even simply drop me an email at mike.mnb[at]outlook.com or tips[at]mynokiablog.comSubscribe
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Fully agree with you, this is plain stupid!!!! Why wait a full year, then release it the week before WP8 devices, either weather the fact that it doesn’t have arabic and sell it (from the beginning) or don’t bother at all, you can’t do both!
Personally I thought it would slide in Lebanon since they CAN manage without arabic, but in Saudi ARABIA!!! (It’s called fricken ARABIA!!). why risk tarnishing it’s reputation as the device that doesn’t support Arabic, and lead to confusion in future products, and damage the reputation of the full WP (7.5 & 8) line..stupid ass move.
As Nick Fury said in the avengers:
WORLD SECURITY COUNCIL: Director Fury, the council has made a decision.
NICK FURY: I recognize the council has made a decision, but given that it’s a stupid-ass decision, I’ve elected to ignore it.
— The Avengers
That is of course unless 7.8 has arabic support hidden up it’s sleeve, then ignore this whole side rant
Heard 7.8 may bring it, but no evidence or anything to support it
Unfortunately, this looks like a plain mismanagement, nothing with a rational purpose.
BTW, my employer bought Lumia 900 for me a week ago.
Writing this on it. Great device!
Seems odd the Lumia 900 is still being launched in new countries now that WP8 devices are all the rage. Nokia has got to get their act together for coordinated launches worldwide in the future, imo.
I agree, but I am also hopeful they will improve. First Lumia generation was a rush-job, hopefully their factories will be more up to speed now that the second generation has had a normal gestation period.
I also observed in Nokia India site, Lumia 900 is being shown as coming soon. Maybe thiw will be sold at a lower price with WP 7.8 in India. In that case it will sell well.
“Seems odd the Lumia 900 is still being launched in new countries now that WP8 devices are all the rage. Nokia has got to get their act together for coordinated launches worldwide in the future, imo.”
It could be that Nokia’s WP8 phones will end up being released much later next year judging by the regional launches of the Lumia devices, so by releasing the 900 now, at least it will serve as a filler before the former’s release, much like how the N9 is released in certain countries before the Lumia phones, in my opinion.
At least being late is a lot better than having one or two less phones in their Lumia line. Imagine the outcry, especially from tech bloggers, if the 900 was given a pass in that region. They’ll surely be rattling their sabres saying that Nokia does not care about the region or lying about a ‘global’ release when one or two regions/countries got left out.
As for a co-ordinated global launch, I don’t see this happening anytime soon. Many manufacturers, particularly Samsung and Apple, still release their latest phones regionally. But I do agree that Nokia need to pick up the pace when they launch their phones globally, even if it is on a regional basis.
I guess they only now have either the capacity or excess capacity until WP8 is in stores.
I do agree it seems quite weird, though.
clearly stupid
Looks like they want to get rid of stock
anyway i saw Lumia 710 being sold in Panda!
Yes, I’ve seen Lumia 710 early this year. Too bad people never even heard a bit of it.
yup i saw it and i was thinking what the hell are they doing if Lumia 900 release is without arabic format and has been release for more than 6 month why release the 710 (although most people in KSA use English). why not wait till they release wp8 here.
by the way with the same price you can bye a SGS3. I think that it will be obvious people will go and bye the S3 instead of Lumia 900 as most people don’t know about windows phone
really nokia really
Wp8 phones have more features and very good language support and good screen resolution etc.
The only reason to sell old devices is to sell them very cheap. 600USD is mot. Maybe 7.8 will support more languages? Probably not.
614 USD are you f kiddin me?????
LOL! your reputation in the ME is almost on the floor level and you are still releasing these trash with super high prices??? no wonder why in my country everybody laught at someone with a nokia even the salesperson laught at you if you ask him about a nokia and immediatly show you an iphoney samsung…
Which country is it?
lebanon
i bought nokia 808 here in saudi & the salesperson never laughed at me., duh!!!
& the salesperson here will only show you the phone you ask for. if you ask a nokia n8, they will show you nokia n8, not samsung phone.
salesperson in your country should learn how to deal with customers.. For me, just for me, laughing is an insult.. LOL!
“& the salesperson here will only show you the phone you ask for. if you ask a nokia n8, they will show you nokia n8, not samsung phone.
salesperson in your country should learn how to deal with customers.. For me, just for me, laughing is an insult.. LOL!”
Same over here in Malaysia, though there was this one time a salesperson tried to persuade me to get the SGS 2 over the N9 last year because of the ‘dual-core’ and the ‘more apps’ tagline.
But I agree with you on that salesperson (don’t think it applies to all, though). Not to mention be reprimanded for his behaviour towards customers such as the OP.
yeah a bad idea, its dumb to screw with customers new to lumia.
Channel/stock clearing, it seems. If they can get that price for it, good for Nokia.
Hopefully 7.8 brings arabic (don’t see any particular reason why it COULD not) and that the announcement > Middle-East availability gap on WP8 devices is shorter. I suspect though it will be several months and in that regard it may well make sense for Nokia to make the 900 at least available – I doubt they are expecting massive sales or anything.
There will ALWAYS be timing differences in roll out to different countries and regions. Unfortunately, from a business point of view a fully gloabl, at once to all countries, launch is extremely difficult to do, and in most cases not wise to do. Even Apple does not launch, AFAIK, in all countries on the same day.
Anyway, luckily MNB readers know they can wait a few month and then go for a WP8 device.
No one would get it, even if they knew english well. unless WP7.8 brings arabic support, this seems like a very strange decision.
I don’t think it is planned to sell much. It’s getting shelf position before the Win8 that matters. As I recall, isn’t the entire Middle East and SouthEast Asia among the first of Win8 distribution? I would call this brand awareness and getting that shelf position to hold it before some one else does. There are going to be a lot of Win8 phone OEMs. We used to pull the same thing as a grocery sales rep. Coke and Pepsi spread out if new products are coming also. “maintain that space”.
Thanks for the insight. Interesting .(I once read an article on how supermarkets place their products, rotate them etc. – it’s a science on its own!)
That’s really an unwise move.
No Arabic support is a deal breaker. Because although people understand English, they talk and message in Arabic.
Even if it had a proper Arabic support, why would you launch your new phone and ecosystem in a big market like KSA with an old device and an old unupgradable OS, less than a week before the new thing!
By the way, for the same price, you can get a brand new GSIII.
Ok, this is completely OFF topic O.O
it seems like WAZAPP (whatsapp for N9) is not working anymore..
I get “server: wazapp is not supported” every time i try to log in..
=(
Dude, post in a story that’s at least loosely related! To answer your Qn…
READ the main thread at talk.maemo.org, & I mean READ, don’t just post straight away.
It makes things harder for everyone ultimately if everyone just posts immediately & doesn’t bother reading 1st.
Read the last 30 or so pages carefully, it’s extremely unlikely you won’t know what to do after that, but if you don’t, THEN post.
Good-luck & God’s speed!
Here ya go, start from here & read till the end, that’s 60 pages:
http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=84318&page=288
Most of it’s crap & very brief, so you’ll be able to skim through it very quickly.
I’m 99% certain that everything that’s happened lately is covered from that point onwards.
There’s some article floating about that summarise most/all you need to know, but rather than link to them I still think it’s best you read all of that.
Take notes as you read, paste links to posts that are useful in notepad.
(informative posts are very rare amongst the noise)
thanks! cheers! woohoo! wepa!
¬¬
NP Oswald, you are reading it right? I hope so…
You will fully appreciate the benefits if you try it!
The same process can be used for fixing issues you may have, or twks/hacks/mods you want to apply.
Search/browse carefully to find the right thread/s, & then take some time to read.
If you’re still not sure what to do, then by all means post.
The formula’s really as simple as that, & it does work very well, if properly applied/followed.
Good-luck.
I bought my Samsung Galaxy S3 for $490…
Your point? That’s a starting price, initial price is always high it’ll drop heaps, SIII would’ve been similar, probably more.
Your point? That’s a starting price, initial price is always high it’ll drop heaps, SIII would’ve been similar, probably more…
My point? I bought a more capable phone, with a more stablished and grown ecosystem, that is going to fully support the next iteration of the OS it came with, for less money of Nokia’s offering.
Well, you’re not going to get too much objection there, I’m one who was against the whole WP-only strategy.
But I do so despise one-eyed fanbots, sounds like you’re wholly & solely one of them, good luck with that longer-term
I enjoy & use multiple platforms, the main ones I use are often characterised as “dead”, yet they have more life than the drones that so often like to chant such silly things.
Oh & the 900 is LIKELY to end-up costing way less than the SGSIII in a few more months, guaranteed.
And so it should, it’s simply not fully competitive with the SGSIII, I’ve no doubt Nokia knows that, so much for your POINT.
Its been sold here in the UAE since almost the begining of last month, with a free DC-16 charger for 1999 AED, which is almost exactly equivalent to 1999 riyals.
i’m not gonna pay 600USD for the lumia 900 sorry NOKIA but no wonder nokia still falling behind there prices are crazy as ever
Starting price, hello, it’ll drop hugely in the coming mths, ALL OEM’s do that (to varying degrees).
In Kuwait it’s roughly SAR2000 at the airport shop I saw it in. It needs to around 1700-1800 to make it competitive now that the new phones are going to be available from November.