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| Authored by: Anonymous on Friday, May 18 2012 @ 04:35 PM EDT |
It comes down to if "sales" of the Nokia Lumia 900 are at, or
below
that of the Kin, in the United states, then WinMo 7.x, and all future
offerings
in the mobile space by Microsoft are dead on arrival. By
dumping
the Lumia at substantially below cost, AT&T might be able to post
data that
implies that the Lumia is more popular than the Kin. [ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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| Authored by: Anonymous on Friday, May 18 2012 @ 04:40 PM EDT |
There was an article somewhere earlier this week that said
that the UK debut of the Lumia 900 had been pushed back by
two weeks due to supply issues related by "overwhelming U.S
demand". Don't know about you, but I haven't heard anyone
in real life mention anything about the Lumia 900, let alone
buy one. With the iPhone or iPad, every new release is a
hot topic of conversation for weeks. I think this
"overwhelming demand" is pure vapor from the MS marketing
dept.
I'm not sure Microsoft fully realizes the degree to which
they are considered "un-cool" by the younger crowd that
comprises such a large fraction of smartphone users. I am
the father of a teenage daughter who attends a high school
is a complete Windows shop, with MS Office proficiency
considered to be the sine qua non of computer expertise. To
a one, my daughter and her friends all hate Windows. A
typical quote might be "OMG Windows is so stupid, I had to
go to four computers at school before I could find one that
worked. Why can't we use Macs?". This has nothing to do
with technical knowledge, let alone Free Software/OSS
values, it is just that Windows is something they associate
with boring, tedious homework. Apple is associated with
fun.
As for the idea of a Windows smartphone, the very concept
may be too embarrassing to be viable among young people. As
my daughter put it, "Only a complete dork would buy a
Windows phone". We saw how well the Zune went over in this
demographic group. But the XBox has been a success, so
perhaps the Lumia may have a slim chance.[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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| Authored by: Gringo_ on Friday, May 18 2012 @ 04:45 PM EDT |
...it just makes them look desperate. I doubt discounting
the "price" sways
many people, because it represents only a
tiny fraction of the total cost of
ownership over the
length of the contract. When I bought my phone, the "price"
had no influence whatsoever on what I chose. I already knew
I wanted an
Android as opposed to an iPhone, so then it was
just a question of which was
the hottest at that moment.
Where I live, one of our big carriers if
offering a free
XBox with purchase of a Nokia Windows Phone. AFAIK, no XBox
is
"free". You need to sign up for an account and buy the
games, etc. You are
getting into an investment where again
the up front cost is only a small
fraction of the long term
cost. How many people looking for a smart phone are
also in
the market for an XBox at that same moment?
What kind of person
is going to choose a phone based on
the upfront "cost", instead of looking at
the big picture,
what brand they want, what features they want, what apps do
they want access to, or the total cost of ownership over the
length of the
contract? I can't imagine any intelligent
consumer basing a decision on the
upfront "cost". [ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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| Authored by: Anonymous on Friday, May 18 2012 @ 10:29 PM EDT |
"buying themselves a slice of the handset market with a loss-leader?"
While at the same time blocking the import of Motorola handsets. Is it possible
anticompetitive actions initiated by M$ opens a foothold in a saturated handset
market. Motorola needs to appeal and ask the Seattle court to issue an
injunction where M$ is not able to enforce an import ban. IIRC didn't former M$
executive(s) recently join the DOJ.
from under the bridge
stage_v[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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| Authored by: Anonymous on Friday, May 18 2012 @ 11:46 PM EDT |
A couple points first.
The 900 was announced in Jan. at Mobile World Conference. It was also awarded
Best New Smartphone at the show. It was actually released on April 8th.
Elop has openly stated that his plan is to sacrifice margins in order to capture
market share from the other 8 manufacturers who make handsets with this OS on it
and then later on [somehow] make money once he has a larger portion of this
niche. Nokia has over 50% of sales of all handsets since 7.5 was released.
So, regarding point number one: The abnormally low price it was introduced at
was immediately followed by a $100 credit for those who bought on or before
April 21st because of the memory management software defect that was preventing
some users from connecting to data networks.
The $49 price is being offered by more than one source.
It looks suspicious to me. Especially since the same weasel word sound bites
were emitted in regard to initial sales of the 800. "Best uptake of a new
Nokia handset in years!" But they've been on a slide for years, so are
they doing well, or not? "Can't keep 'em in stock!" Really, why not?
Failure to prepare adequately? Unforeseen shipping or manufacturing
bottlenecks? No explanations were forthcoming but many, ok, the fanbois,
claimed that it was due to massive uptake.
Then earnings guidance comes out and Nokia says profits are down and will be for
2 to 3 quarters. Later on earnings are posted and sales of the 800 weren't very
good. Hmmm ...
Now they are saying the same things about the 900 launch that they did about the
800. No numbers are being announced.
Offers of phones 3 for $0.01 from Amazon when the 7.0 version of the OS was
released didn't buy a slice of the handset market. Giving away an Xbox with
every 800 in the U.K. didn't either.
T-Mobile started offering the 710 at $49 and there have been a number of more
recent offers where it was available for no cash outlay (subsidized).
My guess is that the phones are succeeding just as well as the tablets running
WP, Vista and W7 did.[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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