Lumia 900 owner vents Windows Phone 8 frustrations, Stephen Elop responds

By Tiko377 - 06-20-2012, 08:49 PM - Boxden > BX Tech

If you've been following our Windows Phone 8 coverage today, you know that anybody who buys a Windows Phone today will not be able to upgrade to WP8 when it ships this fall. If you were an early adopter that's not such a bad deal, but if you bought a Lumia 900 oh, say, three weeks ago you might be upset -- and rightly so. And rightfully angry is Luke, who sent us an email he fired off to Nokia's Stephen Elop and AT&T's Ralph de la Vega in which he asks why he shouldn't, right now, turn around and return his phone.

I just watched the Windows Phone 8 announcement and learned that the Lumia will not be upgradeable to WP8, it will more or less get a skin with the new live tiles and a few other features... at the end of the day unless one of you responds and convinces me to stay with Microsoft Windows Phone, Nokia Lumia or Att wireless I will just wash my hands of all three companies and move over to Verizon.

Surprise surprise, Elop responded very promptly, stating:

We have a lot of exciting capabilities coming as part of a pattern of updates for the existing Lumia products. This includes some of the most significant visual elements of WP8 – for example, the new start screen. As we have always been, Nokia is committed to delivering a long term experience to any purchasers of our products.

Granted, Nokia is bringing some nice updates to current Lumias, like some Scalado-augmented photo magic, but Elop's mention of "significant visual elements" leaves us wanting. We're waiting to hear what Luke's going to do, but here's your chance to weigh in. What do you think he should do? Full emails are after the break.

Luke's email
Dear Mr. Ballmer, Mr. Elop, and Mr. De La Vega,

I bought the Samsung Focus the day windows phone was released because I could appreciate the vision behind the OS and I enjoyed the aesthetics after being on android and iOS. The Focus served me well but it did not last the full 2 years of my contract on ATT. It would not charge even after a new factory battery was installed. Needless to say, I reached out for help from Samsung and they wouldn't even bother helping me and it was more of the same from ATT, they said they wouldn't help me and I needed to just sign a new contract and get a new phone. I reached out to Microsoft and at least they gave me feedback on the phone not charging even though there was nothing they could do. Since I had no other option I decided I had to sign a new contract and get a new phone which I did three weeks ago. I purchased the Lumia 900. My phone had the purple haze which the recent update addressed but it has also had other quirks, IE crashing randomly, videos stored on the device stuttering, data both LTE and Wifi randomly dropping and a screen flicker that happens periodically when you turn the power on. All of these things I never encountered on the Focus. Needless to say, I have 1 week left to get out of this contract and phone and walk away from all three companies for the low price of a $36.00 restocking fee, thanks Mr. De Le Vega, which I am seriously considering. On top of all of the previous problems I explained I just watched the Windows Phone 8 announcement and learned that the Lumia will not be upgradeable to WP8, it will more or less get a skin with the new live tiles and a few other features. This to me is the worse offense of all, I understand the Lumia doesn't have the multicore and NFC built in so all three companies will say the hardware doesn't support it, but at the end of the day unless one of you responds and convinces me to stay with Microsoft Windows Phone, Nokia Lumia or Att wireless I will just wash my hands of all three companies and move over to Verizon. I hear Google makes some nice LTE phones over there.

Luke

Elop's response
Thanks for your note, Luke.

As we showed today, we have a lot of exciting capabilities coming as part of a pattern of updates for the existing Lumia products. This includes some of the most significant visual elements of WP8 – for example, the new start screen. As we have always been, Nokia is committed to delivering a long term experience to any purchasers of our products.

Regards,

Stephen

Lumia 900 owner vents Windows Phone 8 frustrations, Stephen Elop responds -- Engadget

06-20-2012, 09:07 PM

And people said there wasn't fragmentation on windows phone

06-20-2012, 09:15 PM

I was watching the live blog at work so I only saw bits and pieces, but from what I gathered a lot of what they can upgrade will go to the Lumia in the form of 7.8, but a lot of it is hardware based. What the !! did he expect? His Lumia to instantly get a second core and 720p resolution?

06-20-2012, 09:40 PM

Originally Posted by KURUPTION!!!

I was watching the live blog at work so I only saw bits and pieces, but from what I gathered a lot of what they can upgrade will go to the Lumia in the form of 7.8, but a lot of it is hardware based. What the !! did he expect? His Lumia to instantly get a second core and 720p resolution?

[pic]

06-21-2012, 12:21 AM

Originally Posted by KURUPTION!!!

I was watching the live blog at work so I only saw bits and pieces, but from what I gathered a lot of what they can upgrade will go to the Lumia in the form of 7.8, but a lot of it is hardware based. What the !! did he expect? His Lumia to instantly get a second core and 720p resolution?

I don't even think it's so much the hardware that's the issue. But the software in the OS is a gamechanger in which the native codebase they talked about will make for dope apps for WinPhone8 be easily compatible/convertible with Windows 8 tablets, but those WinPhone8 created apps won't be useable at all for Windows Phone 7 even with the eyecandy upgrade to 7.9

It's hilarity seeing how this THAT was seen as impossible by the few WinPhone heads tryna talk bad about Android fragmentation [pic]

06-21-2012, 02:58 AM

But I thought the Lumia was the end of the beta testing phones [pic]

06-21-2012, 04:51 AM

Yeah this is pretty much a massive fragmentation the likes of which not even Android can hold a candle to. Win8 apps will not work on ANY existing windows phones.

NONE of them. The new Win8 phones will be backwards compatible, but anyone stuck on contract or who doesn't upgrade gets ZERO win8 apps. That's not even fragmentation, thats a goddamn hoover dam of separation. I was shocked as hell when I read that they were doing this.

05:24 AM

And people have the nerve to talk about Android.

Really there is no solution to older hardware. Android just does not upgrade older hardware. IOS supplies limited features upgrades. Windows seems to be going that route. Android cannot go this route because of the different past hardware configurations.

I will just say this, to the non-technical consumer, the Nokia 900 was marketed as a flagship phone. When was the last flagship phone you saw that did not get the next upgrade? The last Android flagship phones have received ICS or are receiving it in the coming months. The last Iphone is receiving the new IOS. You can scream about the Nokia 900 only having one core, but the average consumer know nothing about cores or GPUs/CPUs. They marketed the Nokia 900 like it could take on the GSII and the Iphone 4S. They straight bamboozled consumers.

06-21-2012, 08:09 AM

[pic]

06-21-2012, 10:31 AM

Originally Posted by xeduran

And people have the nerve to talk about Android.

Really there is no solution to older hardware. Android just does not upgrade older hardware. IOS supplies limited features upgrades. Windows seems to be going that route. Android cannot go this route because of the different past hardware configurations.

I will just say this, to the non-technical consumer, the Nokia 900 was marketed as a flagship phone. When was the last flagship phone you saw that did not get the next upgrade? The last Android flagship phones have received ICS or are receiving it in the coming months. The last Iphone is receiving the new IOS. You can scream about the Nokia 900 only having one core, but the average consumer know nothing about cores or GPUs/CPUs. They marketed the Nokia 900 like it could take on the GSII and the Iphone 4S. They straight bamboozled consumers.

I'm sorry, but this is the age of the smart consumer...if you aren't worried about the specifications of your phone then you shouldn't be worried about getting every update. He says he'll take his business to Verizon, but when he makes an idiotic consumer decision, is he gonna blame Verizon too? I loosely follow windows phone as an HTC Arrive user, and even I knew the Nokia line wouldn't be a smart move RIGHT NOW because of the presence of dual cores in the near future for windows phones. nicca sounds like an angry idiot

06-21-2012, 11:11 AM

Fragmentation cannot be avoided it can only be managed.

It's like running running the latest version of Photoshop on a Intel Core 2 duo it's not a smooth experience. Running WP8 on old hardware is not going to be a smooth experience.

Nokia Lumia 900 is still a great value phone it works OOB its reliable, fast and easy to use.

Nokia is committed to brining future upgrades and exclusive applications. Pure Windows Phone 8 apps require more horsepower running them on WP7.5 devices will be !!ty and slow.

Do you want a !!ty or slow phone running the latest software

If you do then I can see why Nokia pissed you off.

06-21-2012, 11:12 AM

Originally Posted by xeduran

And people have the nerve to talk about Android.

Really there is no solution to older hardware. Android just does not upgrade older hardware. IOS supplies limited features upgrades. Windows seems to be going that route. Android cannot go this route because of the different past hardware configurations.

I will just say this, to the non-technical consumer, the Nokia 900 was marketed as a flagship phone. When was the last flagship phone you saw that did not get the next upgrade? The last Android flagship phones have received ICS or are receiving it in the coming months. The last Iphone is receiving the new IOS. You can scream about the Nokia 900 only having one core, but the average consumer know nothing about cores or GPUs/CPUs. They marketed the Nokia 900 like it could take on the GSII and the Iphone 4S. They straight bamboozled consumers.

And it can.

06-21-2012, 05:59 PM

Phone cool but I dont like it. Im thinking about breaking my contract.

06-22-2012, 07:00 PM

I just gotta say its !!ty...since this was supposed to be the phone that brought windows mobile back...

09:07 PM

damn. nokias response [pic]

"Elop's response
Thanks for your note, Luke."

nokia might as well have sent him

[pic]

06-23-2012, 09:24 AM

Originally Posted by ggfresh

Fragmentation cannot be avoided it can only be managed.

It's like running running the latest version of Photoshop on a Intel Core 2 duo it's not a smooth experience. Running WP8 on old hardware is not going to be a smooth experience.

Nokia Lumia 900 is still a great value phone it works OOB its reliable, fast and easy to use.

Nokia is committed to brining future upgrades and exclusive applications. Pure Windows Phone 8 apps require more horsepower running them on WP7.5 devices will be !!ty and slow.

Do you want a !!ty or slow phone running the latest software

If you do then I can see why Nokia pissed you off.

Right but MS took a big loss on this because they kept saying that fragmentation wouldn't be a problem and it won't happen to their software which it did.

06-23-2012, 11:45 AM

i guess wp7 was the beta test phone [pic]

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