COMMENT: Desperate and fast running out of money, Nokia has been caught out engaging in marketing practises deliberately designed to mislead consumers.
The Finish Company, who is trying to create the impression the camera in their new Nokia Lumia 920 is superior to cameras found in their competitors, produced a video that they initially claimed had been shot using the new camera; the only problem was that the Company had forked out thousands to employ the services of a professional camera crew to shoot the video who did not, as Nokia confirmed, capture the footage with a Lumia 920.
They also deliberately faked still images that were supposed to show off the ability off the phone’s camera.
If the video and the false images had been launched in Australia, and I am sure that Nokia had every intention of doing this, they ran the risk of falling foul of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission who would have fined the Company millions.
It was only a couple of months ago that the ACCC fined Apple $2.6 Million for falsely claiming their new iPad was 4G compatible.
This is not the first time Nokia has tried to manipulate consumers. Last year the Australian Communications watchdog hit Nokia with a $55,000 fine over a dodgy SMS campaign that resulted in users being unable to ‘unsubscribe’ to texts Nokia sent to mobiles. The texts promoted Nokia products including mobile phone accessories.
Nokia is so far out of the smartphone race that they are getting desperate, it’s like trying to get consumers to bet on a horse that’s already on its way to the knacker’s yard the Financial Times in London said recently.
The real issue centres on whether consumers can trust Nokia and the answer is clearly no, based on their current actions which were aimed at misleading consumers in the hope of financial gain.
Does the new Nokia technology work? This is anyone’s guess until the new Lumia 920 is bench tested by review journalists.
“We apologise for the confusion we created,” Nokia wrote in a blog post today.
“In an effort to demonstrate the benefits of optical image stabilisation (which eliminates blurry images and improves pictures shot in low light conditions), we produced a video that simulates what we will be able to deliver with OIS,” it said.
“Of course, hindsight is 20/20, but we should have posted a disclaimer stating this was a representation of OIS only. This was not shot with a Lumia 920. At least, not yet,” the Finnish company added.
The promotional video Nokia intended on releasing is featured below. The Verge has noticed that around the 27 second mark, when the young girl goes past the trailer, a van and professional camera crew can be seen in the reflection of its window.
