Disqus
Back in September 2010 Nokia announced a Symbian^3 smartphone called the C7. It can best be thought of as a Nokia N8, but without the fancy high end camera, and in a body that’s much more fashionable. Half a year later (April 2011) it hit American shores courtesy of T-Mobile for just $80 with a two year contract; they rebranded it as the Nokia Astound (see video below). When Nokia started pushing out Symbian Anna, an update to Symbian^3, many people rightly assumed that the Astound would also get the update. It did, but whereas most of Nokia’s devices got Anna in August, owners of the Astound had to wait until November. Better late than never, right? Well now it’s 2012 and Symbian Nokia Belle is the talk of the town. Earlier this week Nokia started pushing the update out to nearly everyone with a smartphone running Symbian Anna, and again, people started asking when would the Nokia Astound get the Belle? We have some bad news. According to Nokia’s Twitter account the Nokia Astound will not be getting Belle.
Thanks for your patience @bittersw8regene. Unfortunately the Nokia Astound on T-Mobile will not be updated to Nokia Belle.
— Nokia US (@NokiaUS) February 8, 2012
It would be easy to slam Nokia right now over this, but we know better. It’s not their fault, it’s T-Mobile’s. When Symbian Anna came out it was nothing more than an over the air update that weighed in at around 10 MB. Belle on the other hand requires that you connect your phone to your PC and download a 250 MB software update. We can imagine the thinking within T-Mobile’s office went something like this: “Do you have any idea how much money it’s going to cost to not only tell people about Belle, but also the support costs in case people screw the update up?”
It’s a shame really, and we hope T-Mobile changes their mind.
[Via: Unleash The Phones]
About The Author
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.
