Nokia Claims Lumia 900 Stock-outs Due to Sales, Not Bug (NOK, MSFT, T)

The introduction of the Lumia 900 smartphone from Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK), Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT), and AT&T Inc (NYSE: T) was not exactly a thing of beauty. First, the launch was set for Easter Sunday, when many of the AT&T stores were closed. Then there was the software glitch that prevented some of the phones from connecting to AT&T’s network. Nokia offered to replace the defective phone and to give the owner a $100 credit on the carrier’s bill.

This might be enough to sink any new product, but the Nokia-Microsoft-AT&T troika are insisting that even if every detail did not go as planned, the launch was a huge success. Such a success that the company can’t keep the cyan-colored phone in stock. According to a report at the AllThingsD blog, buyers of the defective phones are choosing to keep the phone and apply the now-available software patch, which the troika claims is proof of a very successful launch. A Nokia spokesperson said, “[T]he impact of customer swaps is insignificant. We are producing more devices to satisfy demand as quickly as possible.”

We’ll see when second-quarter sales reports are released.

Paul Ausick