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Nokia 900 Being Given Away Due To Software Glitch

Posted by samzenpus on from the get-your-free-broken-phone dept.

joemite writes "On early Wednesday, Nokia said it had found a software bug in the new Lumia 900 smartphone, its big hope to take on Apple's iPhone, and was effectively giving the model away until it is fixed. It is offering anyone who has bought a Lumia 900 phone, or who buys one by April 21, a $100 US credit to their AT&T bill. The operator sells the phone for $99.99 with a two-year contract. Both Microsoft and Nokia still have big hopes for this phone. The bug apparently causes a random data connection drop. Nokia plans to push a patch the phone later in April."

4 of 206 comments (clear)

  1. Not Even Close to Free by eldavojohn · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Read the summary:

    The operator sells the phone for $99.99 with a two-year contract.

    Emphasis mine. Why don't you 'buy' that phone and then break your contract? I think you'll find out how 'free' those phones that come with two year contracts really are ...

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    My work here is dung.
  2. Re:Fist by Ferzerp · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Have fun with your five 2-year cell phone contracts which will probably cost you over $7000 over their course.

    The summary is rather inflamitory. There are no "free" cell phones, they only look free if you ignore the contract component.

  3. Re:Wrong summary, again by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If the lumia can be rooted, dual boot to debian, feature an usb to vga cable and a real keyboard, then it's a real smartphone. Else it's a toy, just like iphones and the average android.

    Toy is not a derogatory term. Definition of toy: thing with limited functionality and/or safeguards to prevent unintended actions by the "untrusted by default" users.

    Uh-huh. So let me make sure I understand your naming approach: if it doesn't have an incredibly specific feature that a rounding-error number of people would use, it's not a real smartphone? Your perspective is somewhat... off.

  4. Toronto Sun not a good source by Relayman · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ... effectively giving the model away until it is fixed.

    According to Ars Technica, all new phones sold, even with the $100 credit, have the fix already installed.

    Customers not wanting to wait can have their phones swapped for updated versions in AT&T stores.

    Since when do we use the Toronto Sun as a reputable source for technical stuff?

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    If I used a sig over again, would anyone notice?