3 UK refuses to sell Nokia N81 due to built in music store
By Stefan Constantinescu on Wednesday, September 5th, 2007 at 1:16 PM PST In Nokia, Ovi, Three
First it was Orange and now it is 3, the operators are making their voices heard. They don’t want to let go of their income. Will Nokia (NYSE: NOK) step up their advertising and try to push consumers to buy unlocked handsets?
[Via: Talk 3G]
Personally if a network won’t take a handset for these reasons then I would just buy it sim free anyway. The networks generally don’t drive what handset I buy in the sense that I will only buy/upgrade via them, I buy the handset I want and if that means having to buy it sim free then I will.
Agree with Mobilelifer - the networks don’t dicate the phones I buy, so this is no big deal.
Some people will choose a different phone, others will choose another network… I’ll buy the phone I want SIM free. Ultimately the course of action taken by 3/Orange won’t harm Nokia, it will only benefit the other operators who haven’t thrown their Nokia toys out of the pram.
3 and Orange need to realise the mobile landscape is changing, first with Apple now Nokia - the shoe is moving to the other foot and they can either play their part or chop their nose off to spite their face. Either way the consumer won’t care, but 3 & Orange will lose money if they carry on having hissy fits with the firms who supply the hardware which is the foundation of their entire business.