Nokia World, an annual event that the Finnish handset maker holds to promote their latest and greatest devices, was supposed to take place between September 25th and September 26th this year. That’s now been changed according to the company’s official corporate blog. The new dates are September 5th and September 6th, and thankfully the venue hasn’t changed, it’s still in Helsinki, Finland. So why move the date? Here’s the email we got:
“We have made some changes to the format and date of Nokia World 2012: Instead of a single big event, we will run a number of smaller, more intimate events with specific audiences in mind.
The first of these will take place in Helsinki on September 5-6. This event will be invitation only and cater primarily to our operator and retail partners.
Other Nokia World activities will be announced in the weeks and months ahead.”
Now let’s speculate as to what this really means. First, this early September event isn’t open to the press, it’s for the companies that buy Nokia’s products and then resell them to people like us. That probably means Nokia wants to show something off to secure some orders, but they want to hold off from announcing said new products since they want to ship their wares shortly after unveiling them to the world. Second, the last time Nokia held a private event like this was to announce that they’re going to switch to Windows Phone. The people in the audience were analysts though, not operator and retail parters.
Third, and the most likely reason for the rescheduling, is that Nokia will coordinate some sort of announcement with Microsoft. What better venue to launch Windows Phone 8 than a room full of operators who are thinking about what products they’re going to stock for the holiday shopping season?
Anyway, September isn’t too far off, and we’ll hopefully get to attend one of the events that’s open to press people.