http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/7919413.stm
"Nokia is investigating reports of problems with its touchscreen 5800 phone in the US, just days after the mobile was launched.
The device has been removed from sale at two flagship stores in the US.
The problem is with connections to US 3G networks, BBC News has learned.
..."
To me it looks like the fear of class action in the US makes Nokia care about selling a functioning device and/or actually fixing bugs or withdrawing them from sale. A broken earpiece in the rest of the world elicits no admission or statement from Nokia.
Nokia, the Ryanair of mobile phones.
Nokia have issues a statement on the Earphone problem and changed suppliers.
http://www.mobile-review.com/articles/2009/5800-brak-en.shtml
Supposedly Nokia Service Centres have been shipped supplies of the replacement parts and all current inventory is being/has been updated with the new part.
Nokia's handling of the situation certainly isn't perfect (the service centre i took my phone too didn't have a clue about the earphone problem and ultimately sent the phone off to Nokia who then ballsed things up) but they have admitted the problem and seem to be taking steps to fix it.
I'm waiting for some information from Nokia on this, but what i find more interesting is how fast this has been picked up.
Bear in mind this one one phone - available in just the Nokia Flagship store and this issue is only in the USA. It was available for around 7 hours. I imagine this impacts on very few phones in numeric terms. And yet its been picked up by the BBC and (it seems) every major gadget / mobile blog.
I'm not saying its good or should be ignored, but the reponse seems a bit disproportional to me. Tells you a lot about new media and which stories get picked up.
Plus it is still not clear what the cause is.
p.s. Did you hear the 5800 has also been seen eating kittens and fluffy bunnies?
Rafe wrote:p.s. Did you hear the 5800 has also been seen eating kittens and fluffy bunnies?
Damn! So that's why I haven't seen my cat in a few weeks... lol