The new Nokia Lumina 900 will hit the streets in a couple weeks. It’s part of the company’s gamble after switching operating systems to Windows, and a failure could spell the end for the once-dominant cell phone maker. To try and ensure big sales, Nokia is offering every AT&T salesperson a free Lumina 900, so they can get a feel for the new OS and sell the bejeezus out of it.
WP Central reports: “AT&T has designated the Nokia Lumia 900 for “Company Use” meaning all Front Seller employees are eligible to receive the phone at no cost. The trade off is that employees have to turn in their current “Company Use” phones, namely the iPhone and certain Android devices. “If all eligible salespeople took Nokia up on the offer (highly unlikely), it could be looking at a $25 million dollar bill. The article continues: “Nokia is expecting more than 80% of employees to be using their flagship Windows Phone for participation in the CU program.” This might be a bellwether experiment, letting Nokia know right away if people will be willing to make the switch.
Nokia isn’t the only one giving away its product. Research in Motion is offering prototype BlackBerry 10 devices with the soon-to-be-released updated operating system are being to BlackBerry developers. When people have the choice of two major app markets (iPhone and Android), it’s tough to get them interested in a third. Honestly, if RIM can even limp to the release date of its new OS, it’s going to be a seriously uphill climb to remain relevant. So, free phones and doohickeys to anybody that wants to create the Angry Draw with Friends in Space for BlackBerry.
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