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Is The Nokia N9 Only Coming To 23 Countries? India, UK, USA To Be Left Bereft?

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It is still early days and the N9 has just been announced, so may be we shouldn’t be reading too much into the check availability page, but from what it currently states, the N9 may only be coming to 23 countries around the world with major markets such as India, US, UK getting a miss.

So far the list is limited to:

  1. Australia
  2. Austria
  3. Bulgaria
  4. China
  5. Croatia
  6. Finland
  7. Greece
  8. Hong Kong
  9. Hungary
  10. Malaysia
  11. New Zealand
  12. Portugal
  13. Poland
  14. Romania
  15. Russia
  16. Saudi Arabia
  17. Serbia
  18. Singapore
  19. Slovenia
  20. Sweden
  21. Switzerland
  22. UAE
  23. Vietnam

The N900 came to India after ages, months after it was launched in other parts of the world so I could foresee India missing out, in the US Nokia wants a fresh start with operator support so I can understand that decision, but the UK’s exclusion is surprising. Perhaps, they are choosing markets where the operator’s role is underplayed to an extent and the market is more responsive the SIM free devices. But that would make India an ideal platform, where Nokia’s brand is still strong.

May be the list will be updated and the above only represents the countries where the initial rollout takes place, time will tell.

Bringing a device to a country involves huge costs for Nokia, in advertising, promotion, getting the support centers staff trained, repair and so on, and if they plan to sell very little of these ‘proof of concept’ devices, then it makes sesnse to avoid certain countries. But for fans sake, I hope Nokia reconsiders.

You can expect the N9 by the end of Q3, at upwards of the 600 – 750$ (27,000 – 34,000 INR) price bracket for the 16, and 64 GB versions. It will come in Cyan, Magenta and Black.

Further reading: With The N9, Nokia Shows The World Its Still Got It.

8 thoughts on “Is The Nokia N9 Only Coming To 23 Countries? India, UK, USA To Be Left Bereft?”

  1. France is missing too, but since the device has no hardware button/ keyboard ans is pentaband, we can order it in ANY country regardless… at worse we will use it with english UI, which is not very bad, at least for me…

  2. a quick look at the page HTML code gives me that they disabled four languages :
    French
    English
    Arabic
    Farsi

    so maybe they are waiting operator enabling in these countries and will re-enable them soon…

  3. Some days ago i read a news about the 6 countries in which WP7 starts first. So it was Germany, Netherlands, Spain and three more – but I think they all are missing! 🙁

    I am from germany and I want N9 so much.

    GB

  4. It makes sense to see the cost for Bringing a device to a country .
    I think one can see these countries as first home-spots by language. From where it might be easy to leverage into neigbourhood, (geo-area or language) Example: create stuff at Austria and Switzerland can be ‘exported’ into any german/french/italien speaking area. Portugal to Brasil; UAE & Saudi to all arabic; HK to Ch; NZ & AU to any english speaking area; Fi to Sweden ; etc. Seems very interesting marketing-campain where we can watch if it happens.

  5. The points made about reliance on carriers for predominantly contract-based mobiles is very valid. The vast majority of smartphones here in the UK are purchased via 18 or 24 month contracts.

    I’m hoping, like so many it seems, that Nokia make the N9 available in more markets. I’d be happy to fork out the £600GBP+ for this phone, it’s incredible attractive, had nothing but bags of positive pre-production reviews and is unique.

    I don’t need 500,000 + apps. Seriously, who does? Having owned an N900, I know that the developer community will fill the gaps in any deficiencies in the “out of the box” or Ovi store options.

    I don’t blame Nokia for the move to Windows Mobile, I can’t comment on whether they needed to move from Symbian, but can see the commercial potential. But I can’t comprehend why they won’t fully back the Meego offering, even as a high end, niche device series.

    You look at Samsung, HTC et al; they are making money by rolling out a good range of phones; android and WP7+. Nokia could have competed in this market and approach to distribution. They have the potential to make exceptional phones. So sticking all their eggs in one basket seems very strange.

    But perhaps I’m feeling sore, as the N9 is still not showing up as being available in the UK. Boo hoo :(((

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