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July 25, 2008
Lumia

Open response to The Register



LONDON, UK – I was chatting to the team on Nokia Conversations earlier this week about a story that popped up elsewhere that I wanted to respond to, and quite rightly James simply said “hey, why don’t you post a story here”. So here I am. Oh, I’m Mark Squires, Head of Social Media at Nokia, by the way.

It’s flattering to get mentions on other sites… even when they are a little wide of the mark. Here’s an article from the Register written by Andrew Orlowski in response to an interview we posted here on Conversations speaking to Janne Jalkanen. The story places us in Nokia Marketing – we’re not as we explained earlier here. However this does raise an interesting and important point on handing out free phones, which in social media is something we don’t condone.

When our social media team is asked for loan product we operate a “No Phone Unused” initiative to assure 1) that the paper parts of a phone’s packaging are recycled and 2) that phones no longer in review can find a new home with another blogger or be sent back to Nokia for recycling of parts or proper disposal when beyond repair.
The purpose of the Nokia Store is to let our users test the latest Nokia products, and learn about new mobile services and technologies in a comfortable environment. Our flagship stores form the top end of our retail strategy, and we use the feedback and lessons received from operating them to share with our retail and operator partners, whose outlets are the main sales channels for Nokia products.

Fact is, here on the social media team, we’re working hard to be as open as we can about all topics and discussions, hence my wanting to respond to Andrew Orlowski’s story on The Register – an opinion that’s no doubt shared by some. I can obviously only speak on the behalf of the social media team, and can’t comment for the other departments that this story relates to. We’re open to your thoughts and questions, so let us know what you think in the comments section below.

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