Indications on how well the N900 is selling
 

As usual, Nokia doesn't tell us much about the sales figures. Was the N900 a success? Did they think it'd do well and, in fact, it does? Does it even perform better than they thought it would on the market? Is it hard to sell? Maybe a complete desaster economically?

There are a few half-sentences here and there dropped by Nokians that the N900 is doing very, very well… But do we have any other indicators?

There's sites that list the lowest prices for gadgets in some markets. I usually use geizhals.at, which can be used to query EU/Germany/Austria. It also has a link to a partner site in the UK, skinflint.co.uk.

These sites not only list the current prices (and give you the best offer), but also let you see a chart of the price history.

What I found interesting was that in all charts I looked at, the price keeps rising since Dec. 2009. In the UK, for example, it was GBP 411 and is now GBP 446. In Austria, it was at € 509 and now is at € 539. Prices in Germany don't change that much, but still went up from €496 to €499.

Usually, you'd expect rising prices to be an indication of high demand, right? (Unless Nokia stopped producing the N900 in December and supply is low now...)

Do you guys have any similar indicators for other markets? Or any ideas what could be a useable indicator other than the price?

Re: Indications on how well the N900 is selling
 

The only indicator i have of sales is that when i phoned my Nokia retail store they had received a morning delivery of 700 N900s and by 10:30am they had 5 left :eek: Well make that 4 actually after my call :D

Re: Indications on how well the N900 is selling
 

For one, I tried to find an N900 from somewhere in Europe (Scandinavia, Central, West and South). ALL sold out, everywhere. This was the situation between beginning of December - 2nd week of January. Got mine from eBay as there was just no other way to get my hands on a new one. Either the initial batch was way too small - or the phone is doing extremely well :-)

Re: Indications on how well the N900 is selling
 

Yeh, when I was a salesman all my stock had that kind of backstory ;)

Re: Indications on how well the N900 is selling
 

The device is still on backorder or "limited availbility" in most places that sell it, so my guess would be that it's selling quite a lot better than initially thought - it's been almost two months since the devices started shipping now (and I've had mine for about as long, not a single scratch nor unexplained reboot - love it).

Another explanation might be that they're having issues with getting enough parts, but it's Nokia we're talking about - usually the part vendors are chosen so that they can provide a steady supply or parts.

No, my guess for the sales figures is "met and exceeded the initial expectations by a decent margin". Two M sold devices by the time the next Maemo device is out isn't unrealistic in my opinion - and that's a very cautious guess factoring in the often-complained-about general rawness, "poor app store" and it not being fruit-themed nor Big Brother-infested.

Re: Indications on how well the N900 is selling
 

Nokia's initial plan was to manufacture 30,000 per month. That's since been increased to 100,000 per month.

However, given it's out of stock in much of Europe, I'm guessing Nokia could probably ship 150-200k per month, maybe more with a price cut.

For comparison, the Pre (which is heavily carrier subsidised, and advertisied) sells 250-300k per month.

Re: Indications on how well the N900 is selling
 

Or simply artificial limited availability.

Re: Indications on how well the N900 is selling
 

I assume you cannot disclose your source, can you? I'd simpy love to publish these figures whenever people question the success of the N900 in other forums. ;)

Re: Indications on how well the N900 is selling
 

Interesting... can you give the source of this info (linkage?)

Re: Indications on how well the N900 is selling
 

According to Geizhals.at N900 is ranked as follows:

1. HTC HD 2
2. Iphone 16 GB black
3. Nokia N900
4. Motorola Milestone

Re: Indications on how well the N900 is selling
 

Considering worldwide sales and the Pre was/is a bit of a flop - that isnt too good is it? (not sure). Still its nice to see some figures:). More sales = more support for N900 from Nokia.

Re: Indications on how well the N900 is selling
 

i'd love to see some figures on how well the n900 is doing, in both comparitive and absolute terms.

given that the n900 success rests on a large userbase to enthuse all this open-source porting, i'm keen to see if my chosen platform has a top-tier future.

Re: Indications on how well the N900 is selling
 

Maybe a board moderator can have a look how member count has increased since release. I think thats a little indicator too.

Re: Indications on how well the N900 is selling
 

But how could you compare that figure, all it would say is, yes the forum traffic has gone up a hell of a lot.

The N96, N97 were lemons, they bring out a half decent Nokia phone with a decent OS (N900) of course you are going to get interest. I know they know Symbian GUI is poor, but lets hope they dont focus 95% on Symbian and treat Maemo like an evil stepchild.

Re: Indications on how well the N900 is selling
 

there was a post about that already, hence the server move to handle the large influx. was even said that the delayed move was an underestimate of how many would be using maemo.org. think it was posted in community section.

Re: Indications on how well the N900 is selling
 

Problem is that most of these are based on a "vote" system with results being posted weekly and such. GSM Arena has the Nokia E72 as their top rated phone with the HD2 in second.

Without actual figures it impossible to tell whats going on, quite a few people who have signed up (to the forums) will be asking questions or researching on different phones although seeing a graph on member registrations over the past month would still be a very good indicator of the interest of the phone.

My recommendation would be to see how many Applications have been downloaded in the past month, Angry birds or Facebook Widget would be good indicators to how many people are actively using the N900. But then this is based on the theory that everyone who has bought the N900 is actively downloading applications.

Overall though I think no matter the sales the phone has been a success, its had VERY limited marketing in the UK and knowledge of the handset is still rather low. (I ended up showing my local Vodafone store how to use the handset whilst they were trying to sell it to me) As long as we're not in the same boat as the Nexus 1 I'm happy.

Slightly off topic: Why is everyone saying "N900 is no iPhone killer!" they are completely different phones.........

Re: Indications on how well the N900 is selling
 

one indicator could be operators delivering n900's and their estimates of delivery time. it still seems that one may have to wait over a month. (picked some experiences from people who had taken n900 from teliasonera at finnish forums couple weeks ago)

Re: Indications on how well the N900 is selling
 

s60v5, there is no such thing as "Symbian GUI"

khrm sonyericsson krhm...

Re: Indications on how well the N900 is selling
 

In theory, there are download statistics for the packages in Extras. In practice,. they are broken since the beginning of December.

Re: Indications on how well the N900 is selling
 

You, and everyone else know what I meant - whats your point.

Re: Indications on how well the N900 is selling
 

Dude! One letter q. It's not g.

Re: Indications on how well the N900 is selling
 

In The UK supply still constrained at key sites like play.com. Amazon Prices is up ove £500 pounds now.

Re: Indications on how well the N900 is selling
 

The N900 feels like it was never meant to be a mass market phone. Nokia might not even want it to be one, even if it was possible.

I think N900 is supposed to bring some brand name. Like have it show up in tv series or movies as a geeky phone you can do anything with. Or let someone hack something with it or something :) Cause what else is there that would fit the picture?

I seriously think the N900 will start showing up in tv series/movies soon. Maybe able to get some more recognition in the states with that.

Re: Indications on how well the N900 is selling
 

Here is another 4 types of brand comparisons based on a votes system and hits also.
http://mobile.softpedia.com/
Scroll to bottom.

Re: Indications on how well the N900 is selling
 

I very much doubt we'll see it in movies. Most movies have VERY high end phones with very low usability. The N900 just isn't pretty enough for movies.

Re: Indications on how well the N900 is selling
 

Coincidentally, as part of the AppWatch project I started gathering some statistics myself, and it's *massive* compared to the N8x0 era. And it's not just downloads, but actual users - just as an example, AppWatch itself has 500+ users that use it on a daily basis. And that's for a minimally advertised application that requires Qt and is available only through extras-devel.

Re: Indications on how well the N900 is selling
 

If the numbers posted in this thread are correct, Nokia has allready increased production over threefold from what it was expecting. So it's allready huge success as far as Nokia's own estimates are concerned.

Re: Indications on how well the N900 is selling
 

Indeed. But as I tryed to emphasize but guess I failed. It would be a kind of hacking tool or something like. You know techy guys would use it, or agents or something :D

Think Die Hard 4, but instead of having a laptop or anything, the kid would've had a N900.

Re: Indications on how well the N900 is selling
 

Maybe if Nokia confirms that Ovi Maps 3.0 with free navigation will be available for N900, setting at least a target date, sales figures would grow. At least if I hadn't bought it yet would think twice before choosing N900 besides N97 or now Google Nexus...

Re: Indications on how well the N900 is selling
 

I have been monitoring the sales of this phone as I work in the IT sales field. Just from one east coast distribution center here in the states, they're moving them out as fast as they can get them. About 200 or so a week it seems like, from one distribution channel. This is for a phone with zero U.S. advertising prescence. I'd say sales are fairly brisk and yes the price has gone up, probably because of demand.

Re: Indications on how well the N900 is selling
 

I don't like to further invest in SW (Navigation, ... ...) for a platform from which I know it has a limited future. Also, I don't see Symbian/N97 as a valid alternative compared with iPhone or Google Nexus ... N97 is only half way to what Nexus offers. N900 is not better, not worse, but for sure something valuable and competetive. At least it was until yesterday's announcement not to have stopped Maemo 5 development in advantage of Maemo 6 and a new device.

=> Guess I will wait for SE X10 or what it is called now, and see what Nokia did until then. And yes, I know I have to pay for t-b-t navigation on that platform. But it has still support ....

Re: Indications on how well the N900 is selling
 

Absolutely I believe it has been a success and exceeded Nokia's expectations. I believe they thought the N900 would be a niche product, infact it attracted a large audience (in large part down to the couple of years of lack of innovative products/N97/S60 touch's failings).

Re: Indications on how well the N900 is selling
 

Note that there can be other (WARNING: highly speculative) reasons for this. There is no point in developing a Maemo 5 specific version TODAY, if a) the Maemo 6 version can be backported when Maemo 5 gains official Qt4.6/QtMobility support, or b) if the N900 is going to get a Maemo 6 upgrade.

Re: Indications on how well the N900 is selling
 

Nah...since Hollywood is remaking "every movie ever made" (Karate Kid, Robocop, Red Dawn...WTF?), when they get around to "Hackers" (scene where they were checking out Jolie's laptop), they could throw a 900 in there.

Re: Indications on how well the N900 is selling
 

I still don't have mine, so go figure :p

Re: Indications on how well the N900 is selling
 

Considering the year that movie was made, the N900 would be the server they hacked.

Re: Indications on how well the N900 is selling
 

Anyone else believe not publishing number (if they are significant) is a detriment to the success of the platform? My thought is that many developers are business people and will invest their own time and resources into developing for the platform when they will know that they will get a good ROI. I think that we as a community are willing to pay for apps that we consider valuable and not currently available in another form (opensource). by this logic It would make good sense to talk about NUMBERS of users and BEHAVIOR of the users. This could in effect drive the development of the ecosystem.

thoughts?

Re: Indications on how well the N900 is selling
 

Agree. I´d put the numbers out there. Be they a 50.000 devices a month, 100.000 devices a month or whatever they are.

I don´t think the numbers can be embarrassing at all for Nokia.

Re: Indications on how well the N900 is selling
 

I brought up behavior because I would make a bet that the n900 community is downloading stuff more frequently then the 5800xm crowd... especially relative the the number of apps available.

Re: Indications on how well the N900 is selling
 

Not those numbers, no. But what if it's 50? What if out of 30K members about only 10 are N900s and those were over the last 3 months? And some are giveaways? And Some found them on the street or whatever? Heh.

Seriously, I'm curious as heck.