
Nokia apologises for 'faked' Lumia smartphone advert - nsns
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-19499879
======
brudgers
A willingness to apologize is one feature of companies which treat the B2C
market as if it were B2B. It's been a core of principle of Microsoft (e.g.
their fixing of the Xbox's Red Ring of Death). Compare this with Apple's "Hold
Differently" in regard to the iPhone 4 or their simply ignoring the
manipulation of the _Star Trek_ and sending the _New York Times_ flash
animation down the memory hole in regards to the iPad.

Nokia doing so in this case shows why there is such potential for their
partnership with Microsoft over the long term. Both companies have similar
approaches to the consumer market.

~~~
coob
"Hold Differently" is a gross misrepresentation of the iPhone 4 antenna issue.

What actually happened: A full fledged press conference by the CEO himself
basically saying: "This happens to all smartphones, we made it worse by
marking the spot, we think performance is still acceptable but if you don't,
here have a free bumper as it reduces the problem".

~~~
moe
_What actually happened: We did no wrong ... but here have a free bumper_

And of course this all happened out of pure love and altruism from Apple. Not
like it had anything to do with a class action lawsuit or something...

[http://news.cnet.com/8301-27076_3-57380685-248/settlement-
re...](http://news.cnet.com/8301-27076_3-57380685-248/settlement-reached-in-
iphone-4-antennagate-suit/)

Looks like the reality distortion field is still going strong, even post-
Steve.

~~~
Cushman
Maybe this is a stupid question, but what does a lawsuit settled in 2012 have
to do with an announcement made in 2010?

~~~
moe
The outcome was predictable when it started. Apple's "full fledged keynote"
was a maneuver to deflect PR damage.

And obviously they succeeded; Many people know about the keynote but don't
know that it was an attempt to pre-empt a lawsuit.

------
yaix
> In a blog post the handset maker said it should have "posted a disclaimer".

In #eee on white background and x-small font size, I believe. How about simply
telling the truth?

~~~
cabalamat
Is there any reason why they couldn't be prosecuted for fraudulent
advertising?

~~~
grecy
Depends on the country. Australia has extremely strict laws about false
advertising, and they carry stiff penalties.

~~~
megablast
The UK as well, and they stopped letting Apple run their iPhone ads which
purported to have the entire internet, because they did not show Flash. I
wonder if they still hold this position.

------
ipostonthisacc
To answer people from the other thread, this is the reason why we should
always complain about things like this.

edit: no matter who the vendor is.

------
thomasz
Uh did anyone really think that they shoot an advertisement with a mobile
camera?

~~~
sjwright
If they said they did, then yes.

~~~
thomasz
Seriously, do you think that they did not special effects for the following
iphone commercial? I'm not a cameraman, but i guess it's simply impossible to
get this quality by just filming a real device.

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSAje0EgYjY>

~~~
Dylan16807
Nobody is complaining that they fake the _screen_ of the device in a
commercial. Yes, it's hard to film that. But when you are showing off imagery
that is supposed to be coming from the device it had better be accurate.

------
seivan
Yeah..... never trust Nokia after
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJpEuMidcSU>]

They don't grasp how much they hurt themselves with crap like that. If your
product isn't good enough to be used in the commercial, then don't sell it.

~~~
mtgx
That video was hilarious. This is why false advertising shouldn't exist
especially when it's about showing how your product works. You can't just show
people in ads how the product works drastically better than it actually does
in reality. A lot of people would buy it thinking it actually works like
advertised. That's just wrong.

~~~
5teev
Nokia is a company with over 100 years of success behind it, and it approaches
new products with the concomitant confidence: they really believe the
engineers will be able to pull off whatever the marketers come up with. (Even
after, as the video shows, the top of the line N97 fell far short of the
hype.)

------
randomdrake
Link to the apology:

<http://conversations.nokia.com/2012/09/06/an-apology-is-due/>

~~~
89a
The actual demo of the tech is much less impressive. Horrible distortions at
the edge of frame.

> we produced a video that simulates what we will be able to deliver with OIS

Why not wait till you can deliver it to show it then

~~~
cstejerean
Because they had to get their announcement in before Apple's event next week.
This way, hopefully, some people will hold off on buying the next iPhone and
wait for Nokia to actually ship.

~~~
Dylan16807
With the release coming up, if they don't have the software running on a dev
kit by now they have far bigger things to worry about.

