Nokia appeases angry mob, gains life-long loyalists

Are you telling me you can be bought for life for $100? Please. Aside from that this is a good move on Nokia's part. They know they're the underdogs in the market and this is what you have to do as an underdog to have a shot at being a top dog someday.

I remember when Nokia released the N770 Internet Tablet. I was so excited for that is the beginning of some magical unified internet future that would be extremely mobile and extremely powerful.

And it's clear that some in Nokia saw where the convergence was heading. But as the N770 became the N800, you could tell that there were power rifts and in-house fighting about whether or not they should just push the concept into the phone.

Ultimately, as many people have noted, a mixture of arrogance, caution, and faith in Symbian kept a great Nokia internet phone from really happening.

Then the iPhone came out, and that was that.

I distinctly remember the Maemo forums where people were defending the N800 and how it was so much better. There was a particular thread where people brought up all the bits and bobs that Maemo did that iOS could not. It reminded me of my friends who were trying to convince me that MiniDisks were better than MP3s.

And that's when I sold my tablet.

This looks essentially like Economic dumping. Nokia is _giving_ phones away in order to game market share, and using this "PR coup" as cover. It's a good strategy, but I certainly do not thing this is corporate benevolence.

Or Nokia doesn't have many more shots at getting back into the smart phone market and their newest foray was beset by technical difficulties that could bury it so they are dumping money on it until that problem goes away to just have a chance to stand in the market and see how they do (assuming no more technical difficulties arise)

They don't have a lot of choices. If this launch goes south, the whole company is in deep trouble. Pouring even a lot of money on it now is smarter than (further) risking the whole company.

This looks like yet another desperate attempt to push WinPhone into the market at any cost.

Fortunately, Microsoft is there in the back to make it possible. However, it makes one wonder if that might be anti-competitive behavior...

They are just trying to avoiding a class action lawsuit, like the one that happened over the iPhone 4 antenna problem. I'm sure their in house counsel came up with this brilliant idea.

Someone saying "I decided today to become a life-long customer of company X!" does not mean that person will care at all about, or even remember, that claim five years from now.

It's a good idea, they have a good product, now they just need the media to give them a chance again.