Last night i went to a nearby shopping mall that has a huge fnac store, hoping to play with the N9 a bit more. Well, i did and had a surprise.

When i got there, the N9 was in fact on display, but on a stand that reads "Symbian". Look at the photos at the links below.

I think its a grave issue. N9 being marketed as having symbian can lead to all sort of wrong ideas.

Also, i talked to one of the salesperson there and asked about it. He said, in a very confusing way, that it was nokia themselves that asked to place the N9 on that stand. Then he blahbed about not being able to change the stickers on the stand that had symbian on it.

Afterwards, he mentioned that he had a nokia workshop on the day before and that he knew all about the N9, that it was great, blah blah - all that arrogant salesperson know it all crap - and then came up with the jewel argument that the N9 was the evolution of symbian. i blatantely told him it wasnt, but didnt follow up on it because he didnt know much about it anyway - but acted as if he did.

Anyway, i was appaled and upset with the whole situation. The N9 being marketed as a Symbian phone, a big international store allowing themselves to do something like this is staggering. At least in my opinion.

What do you guys think about it?

Photos of the stand:

http://www.inodium.com/N9_as_symbian1.jpg

http://www.inodium.com/N9_as_symbian2.jpg

PS - The photos are of a stand that has windows phone, symbian/N9 and Android on it in full display at the store. All phones were on and able to be tested by visitors.

EDIT: The store location is:
fnac store
norte shopping
porto, portugal

What can I say...
People getting more dumb as time passes by.

WTF?! I can also say that chickens lay donkeys??? WTF!

Salespeople usually aren't technically savvy people. It is funny to see such people do exist because all they care about is selling the product regardless of what it has.

On a much different product, I once had a salesperson from a computer store trying to convince me that installing a different driver on the computer would make the chipset on the wireless card act exactly like that chipset. Since then I avoided going to that store and told everyone that I know of to avoid them.

Salespeople who clearly cannot catch up with the trends or fails to understand the product that they are selling should be avoided like the plague for it will only cause one headaches down the road.

I work on a phone store myself...

It is kinda hard to get everything right, but about the "Symbian" thing, that IS pretty fail... As a salesman, they should know at least something about the OS (MeeGo)

VERY fail....

Hold on! So you are telling that the N9 isn't running with Symbian Harmattan?

Yes surprisingly some people selling those high end smart phones all day have never heard about Maemo. Nokia fail if you ask me.

About my N9:

Phone House sales guy "that phone is very complicated"

Me "Actually I don't find that...But you can see that after 15 seconds?"

Sales guy: "Yes I can, because we have experience."

Me: "What is so complicated then?"

Grabbing his Android Samsung Tab from the counter.
"Look here " Starts moving around some colourful icons on his Android, starts up a social networking software. "That's how...."
I don't seem to get the point.

Sales guy: "Your phone always puts me back to the browser bookmarks."

Me: "But that 's the task manager you are looking at."


In fact he was holding my N9 because I wanted somebody into all kinds of Amoleds to comment on how normal my screen was performing.

He actually pointed me to gsmarena for more info.

Which I appreciated so I gave him the tip to read the review of the N9 on that same webpage to get to know his future, soon to be released sales hit.

What can I say? If it is in a picture... It really has an Symbian.
Picture doesn't lie.

At some point, after i denied meego being symbian evolution, i told him i had an n900 and before i continued the sentence - which i ended up not doing it -, i could see on his face that he didnt know what it was. :-P

It was a weird experience and one i wont surely repeat. I enjoy sales people to know at least a bit about what they are selling, just so they can help me fill any blanks i might have about the product i am enquiring about.

When i decide on buying something, i always research the living daylights of it. I go to the store probably knowing more than the person selling it..and with this i dont mean i am smarter or more knowledgeable then him/her, just that i focused on that single product, while he/she probably has to know about tenths of products.

But this situation was laughable.

And putting it on a symbian stand can lead to very wrong sales places. Some potential buyers can be drawn away from the N9 just by that fact alone. I wonder if anyone else has approached the sales person with the same query as i did. Well, considering what people around me think about the N9, i.e. they dont even know what it is, i think they could put it on a windows phone stand and no one would notice. Not on an android one, though, since about android people know a little better. :-P

Its sad.

deceived by nokia at the workshop only because N9 is having the symbian anna iconset... l0l

Majority of the sales people are indeed clueless. Though i remember when Galaxy S launched i was picking it up from local carrier store, the sales person there was phone crazy like me.
Knew all the Samsung, Nokia etc rumors, even the more "hidden" ones that you wont find from Engadget, but on the enthuastic community sites.