Seen the news? CEO Stephen Elop just showed off the Nokia Sea Ray, the first Windows Phone from the struggling Finnish phone giant. And man, was the whole event odd.
But those shaky clips hitting YouTube are exactly what Nokia intended to get out however – and they give you some idea of how cursory this week’s Nokia N9 MeeGo launch really was.
First, a few images. Then a video of Elop asking employees at an all-hands meeting to turn off their phones. The Nokia Sea Ray was revealed, a phone with the N9′s slick looks, and Windows Phone 7 Mango under the hood.
Of course, Elop (looking remarkably tanned, we might add) knew exactly what he was doing when he asked people to turn off their phones. That’s like waving a red flag in front of the face of a bull/blogger.
If you need any more convincing, a full recording of the 20 minute presentation complete with various cuts and angles is already available online. Look, here it is.
Yeah, you’d think Elop would have noticed those cameras in the room if he really wanted to keep the Nokia Sea Ray confidential.
But there are bigger things going on here than simple hype building with fake “leaks”, as many companies like to do – HTC, specifically. The timing of this Nokia Sea Ray reveal is surely no coincidence, just days after Nokia announced its N9 phone running MeeGo at the Nokia Connection 2011 event in Singapore.
By all accounts, the Nokia N9 was well received: those who tested out prototypes lavished it with praise (“a damn fine smartphone”, said Engadget), and noted how Nokia has finally solved its user interface problems that it struggled with for so long on Symbian,
But journalists have been quick to point out that all is not well. Nokia first made its plans to create a MeeGo phone public way back in February 2010, in partnership with Intel. Since then, a new CEO has been installed, and a bold new deal with Microsoft has been struck to make Windows Phone Nokia’s smartphone platform of choice.
It’s quite clear that Nokia’s N9 is a token effort. Intel was reportedly not told of Espoo’s alliance with Microsoft until it was publicly announced. This week, Nokia showed the device to just a handful of UK journalists, eschewing a larger launch as it often favours. When asked, a Nokia representative would not say where the Nokia N9 would be sold, but an online availability checker suggests it won’t go on sale in the US or the UK.
The real tragedy is that it appears to be such spectacular token effort. And yet, with this Nokia Sea Ray “leak”, Nokia is rubbing salt in the wound.
First off, the timing is likely deliberate to turn internet chatter away from MeeGo, since it’s clear it doesn’t want to sell MeeGo handsets by the million (or the thousand?).
Secondly, the phone’s hardware is almost identical to that of the Nokia N9. It’s as though Elop is saying, “Sure, the N9 is great, but look what we can do with Windows Phone.”
Which makes sense, from a business perspective – although Microsoft’s complete disinterest in using Windows Phone on larger devices will stop Nokia from making money selling tablets on the side any time soon, especially since it’s so obviously binned MeeGo.
Just don’t think this wasn’t an orchestrated attempt to stab MeeGo in the back. Et tu Brute?
