Nokia’s Lumia line is following the corporate path in a spiral down the drain. Today, Nokia cut the price, with contract, in half, couched in soothing pathetic excuses.
According to Reuters, Nokia cut the price of the Lumia in half, what was not selling yesterday at $99 with a two year AT&T contract, is now $49.99 with the same contract. The phone which initially sold decently, but nowhere near the PR hype when the hard numbers hit, very quickly faded to near zero. Three months after launch, the desperation is palpable.
If you recall, both Microsoft and Nokia have ‘Osbourned’ the Lumia, and like all Windows Phone 7.x devices, none are upgradeable to the upcoming Windows 8/WART OS. That OS is going to fix all the problems, address all the shortcomings, and provide a fresh start to power Microsoft in to phone leadership. Just like they said about Wince 7/7.5. And Wince 6.5 before that. And Wince 6.0 before that. And 5.x, 4.x…… Same screed. Same chances. Same stupidity.
To make matters worse for all the Lumia buyers, Windows Phone 7 isn’t compatible with Windows Phone 8, so all the programs buyers shelled out for are dead before arrival. All the code that Microsoft had to pay devs to write for WP7 is also redundant. Nothing carries over. Nothing. The few who bothered writing code have to start from zero. Again. Anyone want to bet on how many will without serious Microsoft funding? This last round didn’t have devices live long enough for a single software development cycle.
So Lumia is dead in the water. Anyone who bought a WP7 device was thrown under the bus by Microsoft and Nokia, they knew Lumia wasn’t compatible before it launched, but they didn’t tell victims. I mean customers. Luckily when you buy Windows Phone 8 devices, they will stand by you, trust them. The fact that WP7 did the same thing to WP6.x a few quarters prior is just a lark, tee-hee. The userbase should have seen it was a joke and laughed along with Microsoft, even if they had massive amounts invested in software and devices. Trust them, this time is different.
And so Nokia, captained by the Manchurian CEO, either the most incompetent CEO ever or the most loyal puppet ever, is circling the drain. Everyone that matters has left, their cunning victory plan hasn’t seen sales rise to the point of paying for the initial advertising campaign, and the bridges back have been terminally burnt to ash. That cunning victory plan, centered on the Lumia line, was rendered obsolete after single digit weeks on sale, and the thin hope of survival rests on convincing the loyal customers and developers they burnt, twice in the last two years, to give it one more go.
And cutting the price of something that was already vastly cheaper than the fast selling competition will change all of this. $50 less will make people forget it will be a doorstop this October. And that 100% of software development stopped cold months ago. And all the apps they buy will be effectively useless next quarter. So sign up for two years of a contract on a device that will not have a single new app ever, has no chance of upgrades, and is backed by a company that is about to declare bankruptcy. Aren’t you tempted? Microsoft can’t understand why you wouldn’t be.S|A
Charlie Demerjian
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