

Lumia 900: Proof that competing directly against the iPhone is a bad idea?  - mrsebastian
http://www.extremetech.com/computing/124839-lumia-900-redefining-the-smartphone

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babarock
I really don't like that article. I mean 766 words, just to say "The Lumia is
cheaper than the iPhone, thus it targets a different market". Go straight to
the point. If that amounts to a low word count, than maybe that's not worth a
whole article to begin with.

On the other hand, I find it amusing picturing Nokia trying to conquer the
"low-end" market. Not so long ago, it was still making the high-end phones,
with LG and Samsung (of all companies!) trying to attack lower ranges...

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jaysonelliot
If this were anyone but Nokia, I'd give them a fighting chance.

I've worked with Nokia in the past, though, on their various attempts at an
app market and trying to convince people that their Symbian OS and Maemo OS
were going to take over the mobile market. They build great hardware and
terrible software, but that's not their biggest problem. Their biggest problem
is a Sony-like inability to get out of their own way. Every project they did
had competing managers with competing agendas, and each initiative changed
course so often that we gave up trying to predict or even understand where our
next objectives would be.

Nokia is driven by committees and bean counters. There's no vision at the top.
They spend all of their time and energy in search of market segments, and
never get around to just building great products.

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bad_user
There are many Android phones that are a lot cheaper than the Galaxy Nexus /
iPhone, like Motorola Defy Mini, HTC Wildfire S, HTC Cha Cha, Samsung Galaxy
Ace, Motorola Motoluxe, LG Optimus, etc ... and btw, I just checked the price
of these phones and my carrier is selling them for under $50 on cheap
contracts.

These phones aren't that great, but are cheap smartphones that are appealing
to the feature-phone market.

Lumia 900 in terms of hardware and price is somewhere in the middle, and IMHO
that's not a good place to be in, especially since these budget Android phones
may be crappier, but are Androids nonetheless.

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mrsebastian
Yea, I think the main difference is that cheap Android phones aren't a whole
lot of fun to use, while WP7 was designed to run on circa-2010 hardware.

But yeah, I'd be interested to hear some mom-and-pop experiences with cheap
Android phones.

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freehunter
The actual headline: _Lumia 900: Redefining the smartphone?_

Your headline: _Lumia 900: Proof that competing directly against the iPhone is
a bad idea?_

Also, I'll reiterate that Extreme Tech has worse journalism than Gizmodo.

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brudgers
> _"Other tech sites are calling the Lumia 900 a flagship phone, and thus
> comparing it to other flagships like the iPhone 4S — but that’s like
> comparing the latest Hyundai with a Ferrari."_

It's more like comparing a well optioned Toyota Camry to a base BMW 5 series.

~~~
freehunter
Yeah, I'm not sure we have a smartphone that could be called a Ferrari.
There's really nothing on the extreme high-end, all we're seeing is marginal
improvements year-over-year. While the tech is moving fast, everyone is moving
at the same speed. The Galaxy SII, the Lumia 900, and the iPhone 4S are, when
it all breaks down, the same phone with different OSes. Same function, very
similar speed in real-world use, and enough polish to make a side-by-side
comparison.

There _has_ to be a market for a Ferrari-like phone, so where is it?

~~~
brudgers
Right now it's a feature phone can survive at the bottom of a swimming
pool...after being dropped from a second story balcony and bouncing off the
concrete pool deck on its way in.

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m0skit0
Windows Phone will fail because it's not open/configurable enough for Android
users/hackers, and it's as closed (or more) as iOS, so you just choose an
iPhone because it's a proven value, even if older models. WP is doomed to
failure if it doesn't found its niche, and fast. Also having the "Windows" on
it doesn't help at all for a big set of consumers that doesn't consider
Windows to be a good enough OS.

~~~
freehunter
_as closed (or more) as iOS_

Except you can get a license to side-load your own WP7 apps without paying the
developer fee. It's a compromise, sure, but on the other hand, it's a
compromise. The team who made a jailbreak for WP7 was actually hired by
Microsoft as "openness engineers", showing that Microsoft is at least willing
to consider being more open than Apple.

The biggest hurdle to WP7 has been, in my experience, the salesmen. When I
bought my Windows phone, the AT&T guy was so adamant that I was making the
wrong choice that I had to call the manager to let me buy one. That particular
AT&T store didn't even have a WP7 display on the floor (though others do).
With Nokia now paying salesmen to push Windows Phone, that might change.

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vibrunazo
> The biggest hurdle to WP7 has been, in my experience, the salesmen. When I
> bought my Windows phone, the AT&T guy was so adamant that I was making the
> wrong choice that I had to call the manager to let me buy one.

Why does that happen in the first place?

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freehunter
The consensus from the tech pundits is that carriers make more money from
Android and iOS sales (as well as Android letting the carriers install their
own software). WP7 kickbacks to the carriers were much, much less. Nokia is
trying to change that.

Makes sense, a good salesman is going to steer customers to maximize profits.
This was taking it a bit too far, though. For the record, I've rarely
reconsidered my purchase, and when I do my opinion is usually reversed when I
load up the Zune app.

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AndrewDucker
Interesting that they compare to the price of the Lumia ($450) of a Galaxy
Nexus ($600), when you can actually pick up a Nexus for $470 on Amazon.com
right now.

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dhawalhs
GSM version of Galaxy Nexus isn't officially available in US. The ones on
Amazon is imported from Europe or some other countries and do not have a US
warranty.

