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Nokia keeps quiet over N9 launch in the UK
FINNISH PHONE MAKER Nokia will launch its N9 smartphone on 23 September, but it is still refusing to announce availability in the UK.
A countdown timer to the launch has appeared on the Swedish web page for the N9 smartphone. The phone will be Nokia's first and last handset to run the Meego operating system.
The INQUIRER spoke with Nokia, which confirmed that the timer applies to the launch of the N9 in Sweden but said it is still keeping quiet about any launch in the UK.
Nokia announced the N9 in June, and only days later we became concerned that it might not tip up on our shores. The product page for the N9 on Nokia's web site lacked, and still lacks, the UK under the list of countries to check availability.
That hasn't changed, even though Nokia told us, "We will share more information about the specific markets and the pricing closer to product availability."
It seems it is getting more and more likely that the Finnish phone firm won't bring the N9 to the UK but instead will keep us waiting for its first Windows Phone 7 (WP7) handset, which it leaked shortly after it announced the N9.
The N9 has gained a lot of interest and in general it got everyone excited about what looks like a pretty decent smartphone. But maybe Nokia is so obsessed with making its first WP7 smartphone a success that it doesn't want the N9 getting in the way.
Nevertheless there are signs that the N9 could still make it over here. A handful of online retailers have product pages for the phone including Play.com, Expansys.com and Digital-phone.co.uk. None of these retailers have availability dates for the N9 but the latter has a pre-order price of £499.
The trading team at The Carphone Warehouse told The INQUIRER, "The Nokia N9 is not planned for release in the UK at this stage. Should the status change and availability at the Carphone Warehouse become a possibility we will let you know."
So far, the phone hasn't appeared on any of the major mobile operators' coming soon pages.
The future of Nokia rests in a delicate balance, apparently, and we're hoping that it will grace us with the N9, but we'll have to wait and see what happens.
Update
Nokia has confirmed to The INQUIRER that, as it stands, the firm won't be bringing the N9 to the UK. In a statement it said, "Although we are delighted with the very positive reception that the Nokia N9 has received, here in the UK there are no plans to offer the Nokia N9 at present."
The statement also said, "As an organisation Nokia takes a market by market approach to product rollout and each country decides which products to introduce from those available. These decisions are based on a local assessment of existing and upcoming products that make up Nokia's product portfolio and are intended to provide the best local portfolio for the UK market."
In other words, its upcoming handsets that run Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 are too important and it doesn't want its Meego OS based N9 smartphone to distract from them. Or maybe, overshadow them. µ
Tags: Hardware
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Let the customers choose the phone we want. Lets have more choices, WP7,Symbian,Meego, cover your bases. As someone mentioned Elop is a Microsoft plant inside Nokia to futher along WP7 and kill everything else customers be dammed this is what you get.
Never!
@Brian
You're right, Stephen Elop is deliberately sabotaging the N9's chances because he really works for Steve Ballmer and he can see MeeGo is clearly superior to WP7.
If the N9 turns out to be a really good solid device that its users love and cherish, and the Nokia WP7 phones turn out to be mediocre junk that sell poorly, then Stephen Elop is going to look very silly.
Personally I would love to have the chance to buy a UK-spec N9, if only as a comment upon the path that Elop has chosen. I certainly won't be purchasing a WP7 Nokia.
I am an android/ios developer, but I have currently paused all my projects to work on a number of N9 apps. I made that decision after playing with the phone and it's software development kit for 2-3 hours. Why? Because I can already see its a winner.
Having developer access to Nokia store and developer forums, I can assure you that there are already more quality apps for the unreleased N9 than N97 had ever had.
So I do not think the N9 will be a new N97.
A fair point, but given the serious lack of support the N97 received when it was the flagship Symbian product, anyone going for the N9 (however good) knowing that it's already abandoned, must have a serious level of misplaced faith!
Given the gulf between what Nokia were offering, and what my current Android phone can do, I think they've had it. They need to pull something really special out of the bag, and I don't think WM7 (which will be just the same as all the other WM7 phones out there) is not going to be it.
The is just Eflop's attempt to prevent the N9 from demonstrating that it could have saved Nokia. And that his decision to insert WP7 was the ONLY correct decision. The word is that if the N9 proves successful, he may not be 'kept'.
Nokia might have a winner on their hands with the N9 or they might not. What is clear is that they are putting their faith in WP7 and they don't want upgraders and potential new customers being distracted from their new WPs with the N9. You saw this with customers buying the N900, rating it as a better device than any of the symbian offerings but then complaining about the lack of support for what Nokia saw as a developer device.
Makes you wonder why they bothered releasing the N9 at all. Presumably the product of some obligation to Intel under their ill-fated partnership. Clearly they saved on development costs by using design / materials that will be used in the forthcoming Sea Ray phone. I noticed how they tried to distract attention away from the positive press the N9 was getting with their leaked video.