Happy Nokia Lumia 900 release day, Windows Phone 7 fans! Only, there should really be an asterisk by that title, because plenty of interested purchasers are going to find it difficult to actually get their hands on Nokia's "flagship" device today.
Why's that? "For reasons known only to AT&T executives," writes VentureBeat's Dylan Tweney, "the Nokia Lumia 900 launches in the U.S. today, Easter Sunday."
In other words, plenty of AT&T stores and Microsoft stores aren't going to be open today. Worse, there isn't a blanket "We're all closed on Easter Sunday" policy for either AT&T's or Microsoft's retail shops: If you're interested in grabbing a Lumia 900, you're going to have to put in some foot time and trudge over to all the various stores in your local area to see who's open — unless you want to just start cold-calling every store within a 50-mile radius, that is.
What a thrill that must be for today's AT&T and Microsoft store employees.
"It's difficult to imagine that American shoppers will scout for an AT&T store that's open on Easter just to try a Lumia 900," writes the New York Times' Brian X. Chen. "And for companies, day one sales are important, because they can serve as a measure of the public's excitement about a product and determine how it will sell over all."
It's no question that AT&T executives seem excited about the smartphone — "The Lumia has received tremendous product reviews and we have been taking pre-orders online and in our stores all week. We are already off to the races," said a spokesman in an interview with Chen.
However, Chen notes that this excitement doesn't seem quite as prevalent on launch day. First, there are the store closures: Chen contacted 39 different stores around New York City's Times Square and found 18 closed outright, 19 resellers that didn't answer the phone, and two resellers that didn't have any Lumia 900 phones in stock. It's a bit strange that the Lumia 900 is virtually unavailable on launch day within a key geographical market, but that's Easter Sunday for you.
In addition, the phone message that plays to announce the store closures doesn't promote the Lumia 900 one bit. According to Chen, AT&T's running a promotion for the iPhone 4S instead. While Nokia and Microsoft likely care more about the success of the Lumia 900 than AT&T, the omission of any launch day announcement (or much availability) doesn't align with AT&T's earlier announcement that the Lumia 900 launch would be its biggest product launch ever.
Perhaps the smartphone should have officially launched... tomorrow?
For more tech tidbits from David Murphy, follow him on Facebook or Twitter (@thedavidmurphy).
