Nokia Lumia 800: Why the 'noPhone' review draws ire only from Nokia and Microsoft employees?

Last week we published a review of Nokia’s latest ‘Lumia 800’ based on technical specifications of the mobile. However to our surprise, it attracted number of comments, mostly abusive, from none other than Nokia and Microsoft employees and associates

Last Friday, I wrote an article about the newly launched Nokia Lumia 800. The article was aimed to educate and inform readers and buyers about this latest smartphone from Nokia so that they could make a smart decision. However, this review ruffled some feathers and we saw an orchestrated pile of comments. The common factor in all these comments was use of abusive language that explains the motive.

However, the  surprise came when I decided to check the origin of these comments. The first comments that appeared were posted by none other than the employees and associates of Nokia and Microsoft. Especially one commentator, Harish, who later realised his mistake of posting comment from his official IP address (from India) and changed it later, is the one who had written the maximum (nine so far) abusive posts. I wonder, if this is called good PR practice at Nokia and whether they believe that everything can be bought like the ad-extravaganza they created in newspapers and TV channels?

Here is what Harish says...

Name = harish
Email Id = [email protected]
Ip Address = 192.100.117.41

What an crap review!! it's one of the best phone available, iphone is so dumb compared to this.... Guess some one is paying you lumpsum, congrats..

The IP address ‘192.100.117.41’ belongs to Nokia Corp.

 
Same is the case with other commenter, Aditya Agrawal. While Mr Agrawal has refrained from using abusive word, he had tried hard to convince us that 512MB performs better compared with 1GB or more memory. Since this argument is from somebody from Microsoft, I am really missing my good-old Win98 that used to run on just 32MB RAM unlike the latest Win7 that requires 4GB RAM on the lower side. Hope, Mr Agrawal will tell those guys at Bellevue in Microsoft to make the next Win8 run on less memory so that it can perform better and we all can bring back our discarded systems into some use! Similarly, he should also try and convince the guys at Intel and AMD not to make any better processors as their old ones would perform better with Microsoft OSs. Here is the comment of Mr Agrawal and his IP address...

Name = Aditya Agrawal
Email Id = [email protected]
Ip Address = 207.46.55.31

dude, gone are the times when actual consumers just use to care about the technical specificiations of mobiles. today, people want devices which are beauitful, fast and easy-to-use. for most of the consumers, it does not matter if the phone has 512mb or 1gb ram. if the 512mb performs better in real-life, that't the one customers are gonna prefer.

just a small advice, go to a store and use windows phone 7.5 for 10 mins, the last thing you will care is whether the phone has a single or a dual core.

The IP address 207.46.55.31 belongs to Microsoft Corp.
 
Coming back to the original article, I had clearly mentioned at the start of that article that the review was completely based on technical specifications. The only phone I found matching technical specification of Lumia 800 was from Samsung and hence was used there. Let me make it clear again that India is a very price sensitive market when it comes to spending hard earned money. This is the mistake many manufacturers, especially from the western countries, has made in India. Obviously they are still paying the price for this. Most Indians prefer to save money and then spend it rather than taking credit for a smartphone that may cost them a month’s salary. It is the same reason why iPhone 4S, which is available at Rs42,000, is still unable to see better sales in India.

Nokia, which first sensed this factor back in 2000, reduced handset prices in order to make it more affordable and was able to increase its market share phenomenally, until it faced stiff competition from China-made but locally branded handsets. While the world was embracing newer operating systems (OS) for mobile handsets, Nokia decided to stick with its age-old Symbian platform. Symbian is a good OS, but only for basic phones and could not compete with the likes of BlackBerry, Android and Apple’s iOS. This resulted in Nokia losing its market share across the globe, especially in smartphone category.

Just a few days ago, Exane BNP Paribas conducted a survey in the five European markets where the Lumia 800 has gone on sale. Out of the total 1,300 people surveyed from the five markets, around 456 said they were interested in buying a smartphone. “With only 2.2% of surveyed buyers firmly intending to purchase the Lumia 800, Nokia's first flagship Windows Phone is ... far behind the current blockbusters, Apple's iPhone 4S and Samsung's Galaxy S II,” analyst Alexander Peterc wrote in the report. Need I say more?

Strictly speaking on the pricing and technical specification terms, if somebody offers a SUV (sports utility vehicle) at a price of a mid-sized car, then over 95% people would prefer to buy the SUV. Don’t believe me? Go and ask any dealer of Mahindra & Mahindra and they will tell you the overwhelming response to their newly launched XUV500 that is attributed to its competitive price with other mid-size cars in the market.

Similarly, if for about Rs30,000 somebody is offering a mobile handset with better technical specifications (like dual-core processor, more memory, dual camera and larger screen) do you think anyone would buy Lumia 800? I doubt. Just to give more choices, for the same amount, you can buy, Samsung Galaxy SII, Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc S, HTC Rhyme, HTC Sensation and even BlackBerry Torch 9810, that are much superior in technical specifications and features when compared with Lumia 800. As of today, Samsung Galaxy SII is available at around Rs27,200, which still is the top seller in this price range.

We are also clueless about the kind of ‘Kolaveri di’ (rage) generated by readers (?), especially from countries like Singapore, the US, UK and even Poland. We had traced back the origins of all the comments and would publish, if necessary, at a suitable time. 

You may also want to read...

Jagadeeswara Reddy
1 decade ago
If its true that Microsoft & Nokia is doing this orchestrated pile of comments against an article who just expressed his opinion about a product, its just a shame on them & shows their lowest moral.
Pradeep
1 decade ago
Mr. Yogesh, you lack professionalism. you are not fit for this industry
Aeliya
1 decade ago
Lol. Honestly, Yogesh Sanale, who gave you your job? Posting another article in your defense based on the comments on the previous one is as juvenile a behaviour as it can get.

You are unfortunately not exposing Microsoft and Nokia here but making a display of your own intelligence and the values and the integrity or the lack of them of moneylife.in

Microsoft and Nokia are bigger than responding through the Comments section of Yogesh Sanale's review on http://www.moneylife.in. It's not as if Rajiv Makhni is sharing his review on NDTV.

a)You haven't used the phone

b)You are making a display of your joblessness and your insecurity by publishing the details of the commenters

c) For all your efforts, good luck with your reviews ahead. You might just want to float them on your own blog or something equipped with a statscounter gadget for tracking and analysing live traffic feed!
chandan
1 decade ago
God, the author is a real moron!! He did not bother to actually test the phone and wrote a review...how sane is that?

Also, he has the gall to rant against people who do not agree with him. Posting the e-mail addresses of the people who posted negative comments about his review is really cheap!

God, what a creep !!
athynz
1 decade ago
So let me get this straight: YOU posted a "review" of the Nokia Lumia 800 - a negative review - and did NOT even bother to try the device out? Dude, total FAIL from the get-go. THEN in a follow up "article" you rat out 2 people who call you out on your so-called review. Do I have that right? So much for any sort of integrity - what's the matter? Upset because they called you out? I have some advice for you - if you plan on reviewing a product - TRY the product out first so you have actual hands-on experience... then again that's what a real reviewer does.
ajay Desai
1 decade ago
WoW. Its going viral and others have seen through the dirty trick of Microsoft and Nokia

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blo...

http://www.pcworld.in/news/nokia-microso...

http://news.idg.no/cw/art.cfm?id=A8E9B5F...

Please don't stop guys. Keep them, coming. Thanks Microsoft, Nokia and Google...



Shekhar
1 decade ago
More abuse. Is this how one of the richest men and a bankrupt company want to spend their money? Recession would be actually good for the society
Sam
1 decade ago
Microsoft and Nokia employees have more right than you, Yogesh Sapkale, to post their opinions of the product because they have actually used it first hand. You have not.

You should be fired on the spot for not only posting publicly personal information, but poor journalism and lack of professionalism to take criticism.
niranjan
1 decade ago
Yogesh doesnt like to spend a penny more on a worthless item........(1)
Yogesh says the most imprtant things to compare are price and technical specification.........(2)
Yogesh says Samsing has better technical specifications than Nokia and cheaper too...........(3)
Nokia is priced very cheaply to Apple comparing technical specifications and pricing ..........(4)
But still Yogesh says Nokia can never come close to Apple..............(5)
Also Mango is sweeter than Apple..........(6)

From (1),(2),(3),(4),(5) and (6), we can conclude that:
a. Apples are produced in Jammu Kashmir
b. Yogesh is a happy and gay person

PS: Samsung fones are better because XUV500 got sold out in prelaunch.
Burner
Replied to niranjan comment 1 decade ago
Come on, grow up...if you still feel marketing gimmik and abuse are going to work for your aim, then sorry dear, I am not impressed. Also grow up and stop using your momas spoon feeding.
niranjan
1 decade ago
lol.. looks like this guy has got campus placement straight from the nursery..!

he has actually published IP addresses of readers... hope they get a juicy lawsuit for it !

but its not his fault.. he just wont be able to write a review about it.. even after so many comments.. he will just look what is 'cheaper' to the naked eye.

he is not a power user.. but i think.. he is the perfect guy for comparing say a micromax and a videocon mobile.. he might outperfom in writing such reviews and generating comparative data.

i hope moneylife gets mature, gets a domain specific editor.. who can actually understand the essence of a mobile fone and how it can gel in with ur life.

now this is like a kid blogging his heart out.. unfortuantely on a portal with a supposed good name.

but as always.. any publicity is good publicity.. it will sure addup to its PR in google who is another blind guy..rating stuffs..!
Sanjay
Replied to niranjan comment 1 decade ago
Dont tell us about he, speak about yourself first, if you are lame person.
im a user of nokia N8..Yesterday i got a call from my priority dealer saying that nokia lumina 800 demo has been arrived at the store..The very first time i saw the fone it was awesome the display was so bright and with brilliant colour resolution..i went through all the features of the fone..i found these features were missing
1.No USB on the go
2.No direct music transfer via mass storage
3.No expandable memory,internal memory limits u to store upto 13gb
4.No HDMI output
5.No video calls and front facing camera..
i found many if the features missing on the fone compard to my n8..i intitially thought of selling my n8 and buy this lumina 800 but once i found these features to be missing i really got disappointed and dropped my idea.
i would rather go for lumina 710 since it costs less than 18k INR and worth buying even though it lacks the above all features
Goerge
1 decade ago
Shame on MSFT and Nokia
Bill
1 decade ago
Microsoft has always played dirty. Now its got bankrupt Nokia to sing its tune
Dhruv
1 decade ago
Judging smartphones purely on technical specifications?

Please invest ALL of your time in looking up IP addresses of your commentators, and publishing childish articles about them, because writing reviews (or journalism in its entirety) just ain't your cuppa tea, sonny!
Nathan
1 decade ago
I forgot the part where Nokia/Microsoft employee's are not allowed there own opinion.......

Publishing people's IP addresses against your own privacy statements...

I'm sure there's a law against that....
Nilanjan
1 decade ago
I am not a MS or Nokia employee but lumia 800 is a beautiful phone better than Galaxy S2 but not iPhone 4S
Free Helpline
Legal Credit
Feedback