The past week has seen what I feel is a drastic change for Microsoft’s Windows Phone operating system and I don’t just mean the announcement of the new Nokia Lumia 710 and 800 devices. The biggest change has been in terms of promotion; yes finally we have a company that has decided to promote Windows Phone 7 and in a way that isn’t embarrassing.
Nokia’s announcement of their new Lumia phones was great news for the Windows Phone community and even more so for Microsoft’s future vision of Windows Phone 7 and the Metro UI. What has happened in the past is that Windows Phone devices get announced; yet consumers never get to hear about them or see them due to little or no promotion.
Take the UK launch of Windows Phone as an example, we had new devices from HTC, Samsung and LG out in stores, yet not only did we have no promotional material on TV or in magazines, not even the phone stores bothered to push them to customers. I remember looking for a HTC Mozart phone on launch day and if I had not been a writer or read sites like Neowin, I would never have known any Windows Phone devices had been released.
This time round Nokia/Microsoft seem to have decided it might be a good idea to sell their phones to customers rather than hope people pick them up by luck. Take a walk around London and you will see some great adverts for the Lumia phones, while some TV ads have finally been screened in the UK, admittedly to a mixed response from my group of friends and family.
While any advertising is good for a company like Nokia, it might be worthwhile showing off the phone and the UI a little bit more. The adverts on television so far have been a bit self indulgent rather than informing potential customers why a Nokia Windows Phone may be for them.
It didn’t appeal to my wife to example, someone who I would have expected to be a potential customer who current uses an Android phone, she said it didn’t tell her anything about the phone and seemed too arty for its own good.
Online adverts seen on YouTube and a number of other sites are better though, with information about the camera and other features mentioned and the obvious link to the Nokia Lumia website.
If they can work around this in the future I fully expect the advertising campaign to be a real boost not just for Nokia phones, but also for Windows Phone manufacturers in general.