Stephen Elop replied to my email - re: N9 availability in the uk
 

Sorry for the overlap with this and the existing thread about the N9 (not) coming to the UK, but for what it is worth I thought you should see that it is possible to get a reply from Stephen Elop (well maybe I am being naive - it could just be a PA etc)

Here's what's been written:

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Thank you for your quick reply, I can only once again appeal to you to listen to your customers, but that said I am somewhat relieved to hear that you are endorsing online sales of the N9 in the UK.

Regards,

(NAME)


From: stephen.elop@nokia.com [mailto:stephen.elop@nokia.com]
Sent: 11 August 2011 02:12
To: o_***** @hotmail.com
Subject: RE: Problem purchasing Nokia in the UK

Thanks for the note.

We do expect to have N9 available through some online resellers. That being said, it is also our intention to have Windows Phone based products which themselves are a great user experience and that beat the competition. Indeed, consumer research including in the UK encourages us that this will be achieved.

I hope we can meet your needs one way or the other.

Regards,

Stephen


From: ext Owen Griffiths [mailto:o_***** @hotmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, August 11, 2011 02:01
To: Elop Stephen (Nokia/Espoo)
Subject: Problem purchasing Nokia in the UK

Dear Mr Elop,

I am writing to express my concern at the decision not to sell the forthcoming Nokia N9 mobile telephone, in the UK. I have been a loyal Nokia customer for the past decade. With regards to your strategic decision to pursue the Windows Phone operating system, I am indeed sceptical. As a London based television editor I have a keen insight into consumer trends in technology. In the mobile brand game, Microsoft loses hands down to Apple. I cannot imagine myself ever owning an MS Widows Phone / Nokia – despite the fact that I embrace Windows PCs over Apple desktops. I willingly admit that they are less expensive and easier to maintain. It is unfathomable that Nokia has overlooked the Android mobile OS. However with the N9 and the Meego (previously Maemo) OS there is a unique opportunity to have a distinct user experience, which all the while is capable of compatibility with Android applications (Alien Dalvik). Above all, the most compelling reason to support the N9, is its user interface which by all accounts, in every side by side review places it head and shoulders above Apple IOS, Google Android, and MS WP7. Please allow educated consumers the opportunity to purchase the product they want. If for one moment you could set aside internal politics and your urgent desire to have a unified R&D strategy, it would be amazing to be able to purchase a phone which not only looks great but operationally trashes the competition. Please sell me a Nokia N9.

Deeply saddened and concerned,

(NAME AND ADDRESS SUPPLIED)


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Re: Stephen Elop replied to my email - re: N9 availability in the uk
 

If that's him, it's clear he really does, "only have eyes for WP".
After WP helps them regain more of an uptick, [if it does]...
I don't think even his LT plans, include a return to 2nd Linux-based OS :(

Re: Stephen Elop replied to my email - re: N9 availability in the uk
 

maybe so, but he did reply, and the N9 will be available, all be it online only.

I could ask for more but that's better than nothing.


SO WHAT'S STOPPING EVERYONE ELSE HERE FROM CLEARLY AND CAREFULLY WORDING THEIR OWN PERSONAL EMAILS TO MR ELOP? NO, NOT A HATE CAMPAIGN, BUT IF YOU DO WANT TO BE HEARD THAN YOU SHOULD WRITE TO HIM... GOOD LUCK

Re: Stephen Elop replied to my email - re: N9 availability in the uk
 

A tech giant's CEO who replies to customer's emails?
That reminds me of someone.... Hmmm...

Re: Stephen Elop replied to my email - re: N9 availability in the uk
 

True. But it always looked likely for the UK (retail channels, not carriers)
I'd like some clarification from them regarding the US...
It seems it may be Amazon only, but even that's not 100% certain.

And I wonder what is meant exactly by "some online sellers".
Are they deliberately constraining how many retailers can distribute, & in what no's?
I hope not....

Anyway it's probably not "him" right?!? :D

Re: Stephen Elop replied to my email - re: N9 availability in the uk
 

Well, it's simple, write to him :)

Good luck.

Re: Stephen Elop replied to my email - re: N9 availability in the uk
 

Yeah, but this one forgot to add 'Sent from my Windoze Phone' to his signature. ;) If I were responding to emails on his behalf, I would be tempted to add that, just for a laugh.

Sent from my N900 :)

Re: Stephen Elop replied to my email - re: N9 availability in the uk
 

If we all start writing, and it really is him, he'll quickly begin to ignore.
There needs to be 1x carefully worded letter, reflecting the entire communities sentiments/ideas.

Re: Stephen Elop replied to my email - re: N9 availability in the uk
 

Cheers for the update, but it doesn't answer my principal worry over whether carriers will offer it subsidised on contract.

I had no doubt that i'd be able to buy an N9 from Play.com, etc, but the N900 was £450 sim-free when it arrived.

My T-mobile contract with an unlocked handset was £110 upfront followed by eighteen payments of £20, or £470.

Tell me why i would willingly pay the RRP for a phone in britain when i can get it along with eighteen months of calls, texts and internet for £20 more?

Re: Stephen Elop replied to my email - re: N9 availability in the uk
 

writing emails is imho useless. management made their decision thinking wp7 will be Nokias salvation. only the upcoming quarter results can make change their minds.

Re: Stephen Elop replied to my email - re: N9 availability in the uk
 

I agree, and never said it was right, but it's called life not fair, right?

I guess we are all adults and have the luxury of making up our own minds.

I can afford a new N9, but should I get one given the limited numbers of apps and usual terrible Nokia support?

It's a genuine question. I like the look of the phone, UI looks great too, but there are better built and supported Android phones either already out or on their way...

Re: Stephen Elop replied to my email - re: N9 availability in the uk
 

true. so take another popular high-class device (sgs 2...) and sell it on ebay. and with that money buy an n9! :D

Re: Stephen Elop replied to my email - re: N9 availability in the uk
 

You may well be right, but at least I have my answers, not much point just sitting about speculating or b1tching - I can make up my own mind and move on.

Pretty sure that there is a life to be had beyond smart phones.

Re: Stephen Elop replied to my email - re: N9 availability in the uk
 

IMO those signatures are not meant as vanity tags ("oh, look at me, I've got a shiny $DEVICE") but as warnings/apologies ("please excuse the awful formatting of this message, I'm currently stuck with this POS and this is the best it can do").

That particular MUA is a perfect example, and its successor looks like it might end up being even worse.

Re: Stephen Elop replied to my email - re: N9 availability in the uk
 

Dear Mr Elop,

Please understand that I am not writing to you to rant about the WP7 direction, I accept the fact that Nokia did not believe Meego would bring them the level of success deemed necessary, rather I am worried that Nokia's WP7 marketing strategy will prevent me from acquiring a Nokia N9 on a typical carrier subsidised contract within the UK.

I have no doubt that I will be able to buy an N9 from etailers such as Play.com, etc, but the N900 which I have happily used since its UK launch was £450 sim-free when it arrived, whereas my T-mobile contract with an unlocked handset was £110 upfront followed by eighteen payments of £20, or £470 in total. I am very keen to own and use a Nokia N9 but question why, in the UK, I would willingly pay the RRP for a phone when I can get it along with eighteen months of calls, texts and internet for £20 more.

I understand that you would urge me to have a closer look at Nokia's new, and no doubt innovative, WP7 handsets that will be arriving in the near future, but I remain uninterested in them just as I remain uninterested in iPhones or Android phones. I merely seek reassurance that Nokia's UK product support for the N9 will not preclude UK carriers from offering this handset on contract?

If you can offer this reassurance then I will be a very happy person, and can promise to remain a happy Nokia customer for years to come.

Kind regards

JBT

Re: Stephen Elop replied to my email - re: N9 availability in the uk
 

Now that's what I'm talking about! Good message, I hope you sent it.

Re: Stephen Elop replied to my email - re: N9 availability in the uk
 

I have to agree with that. The N9 is really, really a nice device and the UI is just gorgeous! But considering the fact that Nokia itself doesn’t support its own awesome baby makes me sometimes think it could be the wrong decision to purchase that awesomeness. And when i thinking of the hardware of the sgs2 combined with Android Ice cream sandwich, which will have kinda the same UI like Honeycomb (I like!), makes the N9 sadly less attractive (for me).

Then again after watching some N9 Hands-on videos and seeing this wonderful UI my concerns suddenly disappear

Re: Stephen Elop replied to my email - re: N9 availability in the uk
 

.... and my N900 still works perfectly fine, so do I just wait and see how well or badly the N9 is received, and to see what else comes out.

You never know WP8 might be some kind of N9 clone???

Re: Stephen Elop replied to my email - re: N9 availability in the uk
 

i did. will it get a reply tho.........

Re: Stephen Elop replied to my email - re: N9 availability in the uk
 

Lucky you, last time I compared the prices for an iphone, it was 200£ more expensive for the subsidezed version (same contract, same phone, also on T-mobile)

Re: Stephen Elop replied to my email - re: N9 availability in the uk
 

Dear Steve,

When can I buy the iPhone 5? Can't wait!!! :)

Cheers,

-Your Biggest Fan

Re: Stephen Elop replied to my email - re: N9 availability in the uk
 

Dear Stephen,

It seems that my last message was sent by mistake.
Please disregard.

Yours truly,

- a fan

Ps: hang in there!

Re: Stephen Elop replied to my email - re: N9 availability in the uk
 

Dear Elop

I want an N9 please release it soon so I can dump my old phone.

Best regards
*insert your name*

--Sent from my WP7

Re: Stephen Elop replied to my email - re: N9 availability in the uk
 

let us know how you get on - I'm guessing you'll get the same reply!

Re: Stephen Elop replied to my email - re: N9 availability in the uk
 

Ironically it seems that nokia customer care are less well informed, and slower in replying than their own boss....


>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>


This Nokia Customer Care message is in response to your email request


Dear Mr. G*****,


Thank you for contacting Nokia Careline.

We appreciate your concern and sentiments toward Nokia. We are also grateful for the gainful insight that you have shared with us. We are going to forward this to the attention of the relevant department so that we may review our products and future plans for improvemant in the light of your analysis.

Moving forward to your concern, after the very positive reception to the launch of the Nokia N9 the product is now being rolled out in countries around the world. You are correct that tt this time, we will not be making it available in the UK. Nevertheless, it does not mean that it will never be released in the country. Nokia takes a market by market approach to product rollout and each country makes its own decisions about which products to introduce from those available. Decisions are based on an assessment of existing and upcoming products that make up Nokia’s extensive product portfolio and the best way in which to address local market opportunities.


If you have any other concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us again as we are more than willing to be of assistance.

For updates and more information about Nokia, please feel free to check our website. Kindly refer to the link below:

http://www.nokia.co.uk/support

You may also call our Customer Care Hotline at 0845-045-5555, Mon-Fri 9am to 7pm (except bank and public holidays).


Yours sincerely,

Leif G.
Nokia Service Professional
UK & Ireland Team
Nokia Care

Re: Stephen Elop replied to my email - re: N9 availability in the uk
 

Argh.

That is all.

Re: Stephen Elop replied to my email - re: N9 availability in the uk
 

What are you talking about dude? You are so wrong.

Re: Stephen Elop replied to my email - re: N9 availability in the uk
 

ME: I miss a really important feature in the upcoming N9/N950 devices, although you teamed up with Microsoft, you still seem to be missing it...
NOKIA: Oh yea?! What is it, fool?
ME: Nothing, nothing..ummmuaa how can I put this, uhh a little bit of shipping, perhaps?
NOKIA: Oh, we did that, we shipped the new MeeGo device NOKIA N9 already to Narnia, Neverland, and Far Far Away.

I heard that Chuck Norris lives in Buttstonia, too bad he haven't gotten one.

Re: Stephen Elop replied to my email - re: N9 availability in the uk
 

Elop said you live in Buttstonia? Don't you?
Hmmmmmmm, another big mistake by Elop

Re: Stephen Elop replied to my email - re: N9 availability in the uk
 

cant say first

Re: Stephen Elop replied to my email - re: N9 availability in the uk
 

No way the email in the 1st post is from Elop... 5 sentences, and not one contains the word "ecosystem"! ;)

Re: Stephen Elop replied to my email - re: N9 availability in the uk
 

But wp7 has already been dumped for w8, all HTML 5 and javascript, all the time.

And they have a year and a half to decide what to dump that for,

Re: Stephen Elop replied to my email - re: N9 availability in the uk
 

doubt it, wp8 will never be open or based on linux kernel.

by default its inferior because its based windows CE kernel.

n900 600mhz, opens WebOS faster than 1ghz snapdragon native.

same need for speed.

Re: Stephen Elop replied to my email - re: N9 availability in the uk
 

Yeah but we still don't know that for sure yet do we?
That posts from yonks ago, we need some verification from a N9 user with latest build.

Re: Stephen Elop replied to my email - re: N9 availability in the uk
 

It is a bit worrying that Elop only took 10 minutes to reply, you would hope he would have more pressing things to deal with at the moment than to reply immediately to a customers email?

I wonder what time 2 pm is in the states, it seems odd his email shows the same time line as the one sent in the UK?

Re: Stephen Elop replied to my email - re: N9 availability in the uk
 

Whoever replied did so without obligation and was courtious enough to give me a satisfactory answer, not exactly the one I wanted to hear, but I'm a big boy, so I will just thank them and make up my own mind:)

Re: Stephen Elop replied to my email - re: N9 availability in the uk
 

Nokia care just got back to me with

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

This Nokia Customer Care message is in response to your email request

Dear Mr. G******,

Thank you for contacting Nokia Careline.

We appreciate your concern and sentiments toward Nokia. We are also grateful for the gainful insight that you have shared with us. We are going to forward this to the attention of the relevant department so that we may review our products and future plans for improvemant in the light of your analysis.

Moving forward to your concern, after the very positive reception to the launch of the Nokia N9 the product is now being rolled out in countries around the world. You are correct that tt this time, we will not be making it available in the UK. Nevertheless, it does not mean that it will never be released in the country. Nokia takes a market by market approach to product rollout and each country makes its own decisions about which products to introduce from those available. Decisions are based on an assessment of existing and upcoming products that make up Nokia’s extensive product portfolio and the best way in which to address local market opportunities.


If you have any other concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us again as we are more than willing to be of assistance.

For updates and more information about Nokia, please feel free to check our website. Kindly refer to the link below:

http://www.nokia.co.uk/support

You may also call our Customer Care Hotline at 0845-045-5555, Mon-Fri 9am to 7pm (except bank and public holidays).


Yours sincerely,

Leif G.
Nokia Service Professional
UK & Ireland Team
Nokia Care

Re: Stephen Elop replied to my email - re: N9 availability in the uk
 

Going from past experience, and given that the source is now closed, we^Wyou need an alternative client. Claws won't cut it this time (needs GTK+ to be ported first, and it wouldn't be usable with a finger-only UI anyway), but the author of Trojitá just got accepted for a loaner N950 via the extended community device program.

Re: Stephen Elop replied to my email - re: N9 availability in the uk
 

You miss my point, forget the OS, I'm talking UI.

We all seem to forget that most of the public only care if it looks good, and works well.

They don't want a terminal or hackers device.

I suspect that a smoother, more swipe like WP8 is on its way.

Re: Stephen Elop replied to my email - re: N9 availability in the uk
 

Well if that's the only thing that'll change their minds then MeeGo's fate is sealed.
Because everything they're doing/done will ensure it does poorly, even compared to WP.
Which I don't think will do a stellar job but will do better, thanks to the huge preferential treatment it's getting (& of course MS's LT backing).
And that will be all the justification Elop needs to say:
"See, N9/MeeGo is doing too poorly, we have to push-ahead even harder with WP only."

If I were you, I'd wait until there's a few detailed/impartial comparos between it, & some of the Android muscle phones.
The 1st will come out a few weeks before iP5, so if you can wait even longer, you'll get a "three way". :D
I suspect a ****-load of people are going to be very surprised with just how well it holds-up against the likes of SGSII.

I suspect overall it'll actually come out on top...
The only truly weak area, will be it's relatively miniscule repository of "commercial grade" apps.
Free apps repository will be slightly bigger, but it'll still be miniscule comparatively speaking.
But I think it'll make up for all that with it's amazing level of built-in functionality (not just the pretty UI).

BUT... That won't help it for long, as Ice Cream Sandwich will be just around the corner.
And even if it doesn't quite close the gap, the huge apps disparity will almost certainly tip the scales.
So Nokia needs to be continuing to try to grow N9's commercial/free apps repos.
If it lets that fade-out entirely, then the N9 will lose any edge within a matter of months.
Plus new iterations of the SG Sxx series will be out in Q1 2012.*

And iP5 + iOS5 will also most certainly pip it in just about every aspect.
But it's more of an unknown quantity compared to Android phones...
Many rumors suggest a fairly mediocre release, except for software, & a much bigger one in May 2012.
And it's avg. unlocked price is likely to be higher, unless Nokia continues to deliberately not price N9 aggressively :(
Plus iP5 will have the advantage of widespread carrier subsidization, "worldwide".

Maybe, time will tell if still is as bad in that area. If it is...
Trojitá looks like a beautiful potential salvation, thanks mate!

If that happens Nokia can almost certainly kiss good-bye to it's own OS ambitions LT.
Why would it use all it's hard-earned R&D to prop-up WP even further?
Makes no sense whatsoever... Then again much of what Elop's done, hasn't.
A glorified skin would make sense, not transposing every UI aspect used in Harmattan.
And yes, the base & middle-ware is very important, not just the UI...

*I mean truly improved overall, not offshoots that are specialized in one area or another