Paul Thurott: Explaining Nokia’s Lumia Exclusivity Strategy

Paul Thurott’s blogpost linked below attempts to explain Nokia’s rationale for having carrier exclusives for their new Nokia Lumia devices. I can see both sides of the argument, though I’m one to wish things weren’t exclusive to one carrier.

http://www.winsupersite.com/blog/supersite-blog-39/windows-phone-8/explaining-nokias-lumia-exclusivity-strategy-144433

Apparently the sales of the 900 went better because of carrier exclusivity as opposed to the 800 which wasn’t carrier exclusive. But wait a minute, the Nokia Lumia 800 wasn’t even on a carrier in the US. Was it?

Paul Thurott doesn’t actually agree with Nokia’s strategy either. Neither do a lot of MNB readers leaving comments or folks commenting on other blogs. What about the networks they’re on?

Exclusivity may have temporarily worked for iPhone in a time when it was a very unique/different device. Now the iPhone and its competitors are everywhere on pretty much all networks. I can only see it working if the carrier puts significant resources into trying to sell your product with you.

Rebuilding relationships with carriers by getting a flagship Nokia on the network was a good first step. But don’t we need more now? What’s going on with Verizon/Sprint? Where are my Nokia Lumia for Verizon?

Category: Lumia, Nokia