Nokia and Microsoft fingered over comments on adverse Lumia review
An Indian site's ‘reviewing’ of the Nokia Lumia 800 phone purely on its specifications was a strange thing to do - but anonymous commenting apparently from Nokia and Microsoft staff didn't help matters
Context & Ripple Effects
The Lumia 800 is the first flagship test of the Nokia-Microsoft alliance, a pairing that sceptics were already questioning a year earlier when analysts argued the two were not sitting in a tree and had little natural fit. Against that backdrop, an Indian site's decision to pan the phone purely on its specification sheet — without hands-on testing — handed critics an easy story about the handset's reception.
What turned a minor review into a Guardian story is the comment thread beneath it: anonymous posts apparently written by Nokia and Microsoft staff pushing back on the negative verdict. For two companies whose turnaround case rests on convincing buyers and reviewers that Windows Phone is credible, appearing to astroturf their own launch product is the kind of own-goal that costs more than the review itself.
First-order effects
- Nokia and Microsoft face immediate reputational damage at the most sensitive moment of the Lumia 800 launch, with the apparent staff comments inviting readers to discount both the phone's defenders and its critics.
- The unnamed Indian review site gains attention and leverage, since the spec-only methodology that looked odd on its own now reads as provocation that drew a corporate response.
Second-order effects
- Other reviewers and gadget sites covering the Lumia 800 will scrutinise their own comment sections for corporate sock-puppets, raising the cost for Nokia and Microsoft of any informal advocacy around the Windows Phone rollout.
- Rival handset makers gain a talking point: the episode lets Android and iOS partisans frame Windows Phone enthusiasm as manufactured rather than organic, complicating Microsoft's developer-and-buyer persuasion push.
Third-order effects
- If undisclosed corporate commenting becomes a pattern around major launches, expect platforms and publications to harden identity and disclosure rules for comments, shifting online review culture toward verified identities.
- For the Nokia-Microsoft partnership specifically, the episode adds a credibility tax to every future Lumia launch: with the alliance already doubted, each misstep makes the market slower to believe positive signals about Windows Phone.
The trend: As smartphone launches become make-or-break moments for platform alliances, companies are increasingly tempted — and increasingly caught — shaping online sentiment around their own reviews.