Their New York event was going to be the big announcement, the moment that Nokiaâs CEO Stephen Elop could say not just that Nokia was back, but that Nokia was back with the best smartphone in the business. Unfortunately they had to demonstrate their new cutting edge smartphones with one hand deliberately tied behind their back by Microsoft.
As the handsets were examined by the worldâs press, the demonstrators kept a close eye on them. If they even so much as hinted that they were going to look at some of the new features in Windows Phone 8 then they were gently put in their place, as Andrew Orlowski of The Register found out:
Anyone who did manage to get a Lumia prototype in their mitts soon discovered new perimeters. Straying into anything messaging-related brought the Minders jumping to their feet. Straying into the âSettingsâ brought out the killer Chihuahuas.
The secrecy is not around the Lumia 920, but Windows Phone 8. Itâs either not ready, or Microsoft wants to keep it under a tight cloak of invisibility until the expected unveiling on October 26th this year. The truth is probably somewhere in-between.
No matter the reason, Nokiaâs launch of the Lumia 920 and Lumia 820 was hampered by an inability to show off operating system and the full user interface. Once more the resizable live tiles were given pride of place by Microsoftâs Joe Belfiore, who was invited to the stage. In addition to the new tiles the Lumiaâs new camera interface was shown. But how Windows Phone 8 works, the on-screen furniture all the handsets will be using, the look and feel that developers will be aiming for⦠we didnât see any of that.
At least it was more than the slideshow presented by Samsung as they announced the Windows Phone 8 ATIV S at IFA the previous week.
I can understand Microsoft wanting to co-ordinate the launch to show all the features of Windows Phone 8 as part of their ecosystem defining Windows 8 event next month. Steve Ballmer reckons he can land one massive punch with the Windows 8 laptops and desktops, the Surface tablet computers, and a wide range of Windows Phone 8 devices, all from multiple manufactures who have chosen to work within Microsoftâs vision.
Iâm actually surprised that Nokia got to show off as much as they did â" although a close reading of the script will show that the four main elements demoed (the low-light PureView camera abilities, the PureMotion HD+ screen technology, the AR elements of Nokiaâs location platform, and the adoption the Qi wireless charging system) could all be demonstrated without showing any elements directly relating to Windows Phone 8.
Arguably Nokia could have shown off a phone running Symbian, Meego, or even Android, and the bulk of the presentation would have been identical.
But Nokia was always going to have to accept the role as a junior partner when they paired up with Microsoft at the start of 2011, a position that Nokia is historically not used to. The launch of Windows Phone 8 will go at the speed Microsoft dictates. That means Nokia, Samsung, and HTC (who will presumably hold their âsmartphone launchâ at their event on September 19th) will wait until Steve Ballmer says so. Thatâs good for Microsoft, but it leaves a rather hollow taste when a product launch can only show half of the product being launched.
Nokia had to announce at this point in time to stay in control of the story, a story which was almost derailed by a number of accurate leaks in the week before. Now they have a new product with no date when it will be available in the shops (itâs likely to be early November, eight weeks away). If nobody was going to buy a Nokia smartphone over the summer, they certainly arenât going to buy one now, and the retail stores wonât push them because they donât want the customer back in a few weeks demanding the new model as a free upgrade.
In a year when the Finnish smartphone company needs to retain as much sales momentum as possible, Microsoftâs decision to have a coordinated launch means Nokia are having to take an eight week break from making any money.
Hopefully the short-term pain will reward Nokia with some long-term gains.
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