When Windows Phone 7 launched last year, it was obvious that it could not succeed since it was all-but invisible to most people. In my local small town centre, which has several mobile phone shops, it was nowhere to be seen.
I went out to post a letter just now and was astonished to see this poster in the window of Phones4u:
I went in and discovered only a dummy of the Radar and Titan on display. I asked to see a Titan and they got one out for me to see.
The Nokia Lumia 800 was also on display, this one a working model.
The Titan has a gorgeous large screen, but while it is slightly bulky it is slim and does not feel heavy to hold. I put it alongside the Lumia; the Titan screen does look larger and better. Unfortunately I could not see the Lumia out of its clip. The Lumia does benefit from Nokia Drive (not working because no internet connection) and seems to be around £100 cheaper than the Titan. The Lumia also has the free British Airways app pre-installed.
I asked the assistant what she thought of Windows Phone and she said she had not tried it. I said I had an HTC Desire (true) and she seemed slightly puzzled about why I would want a Windows Phone though she thought it would be good for work because of Office.
Still, Microsoft’s device has visibility at last, though this seems to be more because of moves by Nokia and HTC than from Microsoft itself. If it can win the support and enthusiasm of some of those influential retail assistants we may see significant growth in market share.
Isn’t Microsoft giving WP7 handset manufacturers a marketing spend? I read somewhere they were giving out £20m to their partners to push their own devices with WP7 on this season.
Microsoft did give $44 million to Nokia and Samsung to help advertise WP7 in the UK. No mention if they gave HTC any money though.
The store assistances really need training though, so they better understand what they’re selling.
Seems to me that Microsoft, etc were holding back the big marketing push (spend) to the masses until Mango (and corresponding new devices) were ready. I have also seen much more in the way of TV adverts from HTC and Nokia. The previous version now looks like more of an early adopter beta test in terms of marketing at least.