Operation Rolling Thunder

Nokia Lumia 900 shows up on Fox's "Touch", sports AirGraffiti app

Windows Phone News

By Daniel Rubino, Friday, Jun 1, 2012 at 12:17 am

Well, if there's one thing we learned tonight it's that a lot of you watch Kiefer Sutherland's "Touch" series on Fox, at least judging by the amount of tips we received. Evidently tonight was the two-part season finale (yes, the show was renewed) and the main child prodigy gets his hand on a cyan Lumia 900. What's more, the scene is fairly long by product-placement standards, resulting in some nice screen time for the hit device on AT&T.

Also note the appearance of the AT&T AirGraffiti app for Windows Phone. For those of you who don't know, AirGraffiti was a concept app from AT&T that allows users to "...leave videos, photos and songs “in the air” at physical addresses for friends or others to retrieve when they visit that location". It's a very cool concept that uses the phone's media resources, social networking and Location Based Services (LBS).

AirGraffiti on Windows Phone?

No word though is that app is actually coming to Windows Phone or AT&T and Nokia are just teasing the hell out of us. Let's hope it's the former as that'd be a very cool win.

Anyway we managed to get a video clip of the appearance on the show--there were two scenes--and we mixed 'em and posted 'em for you to peep. The video is on SkyDrive and if you're wondering why it's not on YouTube, you can blame their Draconian copyright enforcement.

Nokia unleashes the ground troops with the official Nokia Army app for Windows Phone

Apps

By Daniel Rubino, Friday, May 18, 2012 at 9:16 am

It looks like Nokia is taking the competition seriously as they have evidently formed their own military, aptly called the Nokia Army.

And what good is a military force if it doesn't have its own app, amirite? So it shouldn't be too surprising to find the official Nokia Army app sitting proudly in the Nokia Collection, awaiting your orders.

Now some caveats: civilians are not welcomed for this app. You need to have proper ID to get in and that includes having a nokia.com, team-nokia.com, team-nokia.net, navteq.com or marketsource.com email address. Should you possess one of these, head to www.nokiaarmy.com and get yourself registered and enlisted.

So what's the app for? Details are murky ("fog of war" stuff) but we can say that it's a "Nokia Tool for Nokia Army Team members to use when visiting and supporting retail in North America.". There should be little doubt folks, this is for Nokia's troops on the ground during Operation Rolling Thunder.

Download Nokia Army, should you qualify, here in the Windows Phone Marketplace. Over and out. Thanks, Jose, for the tip!

The Smartphone Beta Test is now over [Videos]

Windows Phone News

By Rich Edmonds, Saturday, Apr 7, 2012 at 12:43 pm

The Smartphone Beta Test has been running since the birth of the smartphone, well technically it hasn't but it's a pretty neat marketing campaign from Nokia for the U.S. We witnessed a website (www.smartphonebetatest.com) being created with a bunch of videos published to poke fun at some competitor handset issues.

Now the Smartphone Beta Test website has been updated with more interactive content, videos and information on the AT&T Lumia 900, which is launching across the U.S. Cue "Operation Rolling Thunder", Nokia's plan of a attack for the states, which will see the manufacturer driving forward advertising not only for the Lumia handsets, but for Windows Phone too.

Prepare yourselves for some effective Nokia marketing. For a taster, check out the beauty of social integration and live tiles in Windows Phone in the humorous commercial below. Nokia is clearly on the attack here at other smartphones as well as how they can negatively impact our lives by being unreliable - something the manufacturer looks to change with Windows Phone.

Source: Smartphone Beta Test; thanks Hiiiiiiiii for the heads up!

Nokia kicks off US advertising campaign with a Beta Test, takes on the iPhone

By Daniel Rubino, Sunday, Apr 1, 2012 at 12:35 pm

There is little doubt that Nokia has the deep pockets, ingenuity and cleverness to make an effective advertising campaign for the AT&T Lumia 900. The question is, when will "Operation Rolling Thunder", their nickname for their advertising bombardment of the US begin and what will it entail?

Part of that question is now answered with the site 'Smartphone Beta Test' (www.smartphonebetatest.com) which is a bold and humorous attempt on taking on Apple's iPhone. The site features a countdown clock that expires on April 6th and a video of a man who looks a whole lot like ex-Saturday Night Live alum Chris Parnell sitting in a chair, being bored as he waits for the countdown to expire.

Below that section we see three videos that directly take on the iPhone: Exhibit A "Outside", Exhibit B "Sick Golfer" and Exhibit C "Death Grip". All three videos feature marketing people sitting around a conference room discussing a blurred out, un-named device that is clearly an iPhone. One of the members raises a problem with the device e.g. the famed iPhone death-grip while the other two mercilessly mock him for even caring.

From here we can see one of Nokia's angles for selling the Lumia 900: they will directly be picking a fight with AT&T's former 'hero' device, Apple's iPhone (in addition to possibly any other "beta" phones, which for us brings to mind Google's Android). It is certainly a risky move but if any company can do this, it would be Nokia.

What's interesting is the site currently has the Nokia name crossed out and there is no mention of the Lumia 900 just yet, but we know it's them. For one, the colors of the site are very much a part of the Nokia "Amazing Everyday" campaign and the whole design screams Nokia. And while their domain lookup tells us little (it was registered by proxy, so no information), there is some solid proof it is them behind the site. By looking at the source code for the web page we can see a single Java script link-back to Nokia.com (see above image), which seals the deal for us.

We look forward to see what happens with the site in 5 days and the following Tweets (#BetaPhone) that go with it. Currently those hashtag tweets are done by just a few people, notably from Butler, Shine, Stern and Partners an ad agency which is probably behind this whole Nokia project.

Update: As noted in comments by wp7rocks, going to the site's images directory reveals AT&T and Nokia items. The most curious is this one, calling every other smartphone in "the last 5 year years" a "tester".

Update 2: Reports have come in noting that a teaser ad of this has shown on TV during some NBA games today. You can watch it here.

Source: Smartphone Beta Test; Thanks, cmunic8r99, for the link

Baseball legend John Kruk recruited for Nokia Lumia 900 commercial

Windows Phone News

By Daniel Rubino, Tuesday, Mar 20, 2012 at 2:24 am

While we wait for the AT&T Lumia 900 to grace our growing Windows Phone collection here at WPCentral, it shouldn't be a surprise that Nokia is already thinking about how to promote the darn thing. Their attempt at "carpet bombing" consumers with Lumia ads is called Operation Rolling Thunder and one of those strategies may be using famous baseball player (and current ESPN Baseball Tonight analyst) John Kruk in some shape or form.

We know this because the man himself tweeted as much yesterday, stating:

"In St.Pete, doing a tv commercial for Nokia, got to preview the new Lumia 900, very cool"

No other details were given, so we don't yet know in which capacity Kruk was used, but safe to say it's for AT&T and presumably the Lumia 900. Should be interesting to see what comes of it in the coming weeks.

Source: Twitter; Thanks, Will (@h11wiscan), for the tip!