Why did Nokia make Ricky take down his images?

Stefan Constantinescu

Stefan Constantinescu (@WhatTheBit on Twitter) has loved technology since as far back as he can remember. It started with computers, but in the past few years his passion has turned to mobile devices. As a mobile phone enthusiast who lives and breathes devices that connect to the internet, he knows he is not alone with this radical fascination of all things wireless. He is strongly opinionated and enjoys a good debate so leave comments in his posts and he’ll get back to you! Stefan began blogging as a hobby in the fall of 2006 and joined IntoMobile in the summer of 2007. Later he got a job at Nokia in March 2008, but as of June 2009 he has rejoined the IntoMobile team. He is currently based out of Helsinki, Finland.

• Ricky Cadden

  It sucks, but it’s corporate secrecy. There’s a reason Apple hides stuff so well and closely guards secrets. If one company finds out what the other is working on, they have a better chance to counter it.

  I’m not bitter. It’s not like they threatened me. They asked nicely, and I said OK. I agree, though, that it’s an exercise in futility, cause you can find those images EVERYWHERE.

  It proves 2 things to me:
  1. They’re real
  2. Nokia China is reading my site and watching it like HAWKS now.

• Darla

  Lol they asked Ricky to remove the images…. they asked me to remove my whole post!!

  I agree that you can’t stop news from spreading across the internet in a quick fashion, but why target the little sites such as ours? It’s not our fault that there is a leak in their system. If anything, we are just promoting their future products. Isn’t that what reports do on a daily basis? They rely on inside scoops… so what the heck makes bloggers so different? I don’t see Engadget or Gizmodo removing their posts or photos! Is this a scare tactic or something?

• John

  Social engineering. If you happened to know the code names for any upcoming phones, you could potentially call around to different Nokia people, asking them to send you information on the blah-blah project and figure out more info. You don’t think it helps competitors to know details about upcoming phones? Anyhow corporate security will go and send requests to each website that is brought to their attention, one by one.

• Mike

  “Why is Nokia attacking the bloggers who actually enjoy blogging about them?”

  OK, so someone breaks the law and the NDA, makes pictures of prototypes, others spread them further and Nokia kindly asks them to take them down. You call that attack? Just because it’s the internet it doesn’t mean you can steal and spread the stolen stuff. Think twice before you write something on your website. It’s very difficult to gain back the credibility once you loose it.

  Good luck getting to work for Nokia. They surely want to hire someone who doesn’t have problem spreading something they are trying to hide.

• Darla

  Mike you have a point. I don’t think I would be willing to lose my credibility for the sake of a tip, plus you are right about the competitors perspective… didn’t even think about that. BUT, by the same token, it still doesn’t seem fair to target the smaller blogs or sites and not the larger ones.

• Bazza

  So easy to blame them and not consider their reasons. Its always “Down with the MAN”. There was a time these things were more respected.

• EldarMurtazin

  Actually, competitors already have all this specs, pics and roadmaps. In most cases even devices, Nokia make the same things. The problem here that leaked information show future devices and some end customers could start waiting for them, that’s bad point for every company. On other hand Nokia provide unofficially a lot of pics, specs etc in a short period of time before official launch. To make anouncement more interesting.

  Nokia or any other company do not any rights to ask remove pictures or reveal sources of that information. We have such problem several times and always our lawyer insist that we could win law suit if Nokia go for it. This pictures and info arent commercial secret after first publication.

• sms

  “Nokia or any other company do not any rights to ask remove pictures or reveal sources of that information”

  good, then stefan, when/if nokia tells you to drop your post, kindly decline their request…

• Mike

  Darla, I think they are targeting bigger sites too. It’s only that bigger sites have more authority therefore they can afford to negotiate. Also they get into these kind of situations probably on a weekly basis so they know what they can afford and what not. Smaller sites usually don’t have much choice but take the post down if they don’t want to risk legal consequences (which would probably ruin them).

• 7amo0o0oo00o0o0o0o0o00od

  its a simple marketing thing…….. if viewer(customers) see that there is a new nokia device coming which is better in all aspects than the ones out now they will wait till the upcoming ones come out leaving nokia with less sales of the current devices… the two n series devices were leaked and on was the successor of the n95 more or less, at this point nokia are trying to promote the n95, when someone sees the successor it will put them off mainly cuz it looks way better and that it might have better battery life ;p all in all u get my drift

• elfguy

  it’s standard practice for companies like Nokia. But the images have been on Engadget for days so they will not go away now.

• Omar

  but how on earth these photos are leaked? with launch date!?
  this info doesnt come out from anybody but a nokia engineer

  alas, the pictures have been published on the internet…and information cannot die..in my opinion nokia will “cure” this leak by changing the specsheet of both phones…if they will improve it, they may put that new TI processor Stefan talked about lately (making a HUGE differece between N95 and the new phones) or worsen it by keeping the extremely frustrating battery life of 950mAh

  but shame on nokia to harsh talk their bloggers…they’re your FANS for God’s sake!!!!

  @ 7am0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0od
  u r right..u r absolutely right…

  one last – offtopic – word
  if a nokia knockoff installs a 2000mAh battery (which is a HUGE power btw) why wouldn’t nokia do so in their new line of phones?!?!
  if it comes on the expense of the phone’s size I’d agree in a heartbeat!!!

• monkeyking

  There is a world of difference between “harsh talk” and ask nicely. I would be upset if Rick recieves an lawyer’s letter. But from what I can see, it was a friendly call.

  On the other hand, I don’t really see the point of even such letter once the horse has bolted. Can’t anyone see you can get over 560,000 links on Google when typing N81?