Nokia crosses one-billion mark

Remember those contests Apple held to mark various iTunes download milestones? In the most recent version, the customer who bought the half-billionth song got 10 iPods, 10,000 free songs and tickets to see Coldplay. So, what did Nokia's billionth customer get for buying a Nokia 1100 phone for about $60? Not even a mention by name in the company's press release touting the purchase (hey, at least he got one of the company's cheapest, most basic phones). According to Nokia, the company sold its billionth phone to a customer in Nigeria, one of the 2 billion cellphone users worldwide, we hear. (And no, that doesn't give them a 50% market share.) But Nokia does hope to have as many as 3 billion customers by 2010; maybe by then the company will be ready to throw a bone to the customer who helps them cross the next threshold.

[Herr Prof @ Dec 19th 2005 1:37AM]

nigeria huh?

http://www.joewein.de/sw/fraud-western-union-bidpay-ebay.htm

hope they paid upfront :D

[Yosh @ Dec 19th 2005 1:37AM]

That's not nice, Noks.
Shame on you

[Nelson @ Dec 19th 2005 1:37AM]

I think I heard about that guy... A real hard-luck story. It appears his wealthy father was recently killed by an angry mob. I believe that he has a bit of wealth that he's looking to transfer out of the country.

Hopefully, his purchase of the phone will make his quest easier.

[KirbyMeister @ Dec 19th 2005 1:37AM]

Why should Nokia give this guy any props? He's NIGERIAN! As in NIGERIAN SCAMMER!

[moni @ Dec 19th 2005 1:37AM]

Some of you guys are F�in ignorant.

Let's start with the basics:
- Nigeria is a country in West Africa.
- Nigeria's has over 150 Million people & 250 unique languages.
- A tiny percentage of those are scammers.
- The explosion in mobile technology phones in use has outstripped the number of land lines.
- some Nigerians are active on engadget

[Nelson @ Dec 19th 2005 1:37AM]

Moni,

I don't disagree with anything you say... Most Nigerians a probably law abiding, technology hungry decent folk. The problem is, that I receive at least 2 to 3 scam emails PER DAY... And at least 90% of those orginate from Nigeria (at least according to the headers and the tracking I do). So if 90% of people trying to scam me appear to come from Nigeria, forgive me for cracking a joke (ok... a pretty weak joke) at their expense.

Try visiting www.419eater.com -- You will find that there are SEVERAL Nigerians who participate on that site, and help try and turn the tables on the scammers.

Again -- I have ABSOLUTELY NOTHING against Nigerains... Only Nigerian scammers.

Are we friends again?

[Hitchcock @ Dec 19th 2005 1:37AM]

Who cares? This isn't like iTunes where they can actually track who the (insert #) customer is. Nokia's phones aren't purchased direct. Basically the best they can do is guess at the approximate date/time that the billionth would be sold. Then marketing looks around for a story they want to sell, and choose someone based on that.

So the only thing we know is that marketing for some reason choose to give the title of billionth customer to someone in Nigeria. They could have just as easily given it to someone in Brazil or Thailand, but decided for whatever reason that a Nigerian being the billionth customer would get get a higher return in free marketing or whatever.

[Ray @ Dec 19th 2005 1:37AM]

What about a contest for the oldest working Nokia phone? My 1995-released 2110i (decked out with a hands-free speaker/desktop charger, connectivity software, and car kit) still works like a charm.