Nokia 5800 XpressMusic launch dubbed 'stunning success;' 120 Russians can't be wrong

We love covering the antics of gadget-crazed buyers on launch day as much as anyone, whether it be die-hard gamers waiting for a PS3 or international fanatics clamoring for Apple's latest. Sometimes, though, these big launch sellouts feel a bit... contrived. Such is the case with Nokia's 5800 XpressMusic, dropped first in Russia on Wednesday ahead of its worldwide release yesterday. An internal memo (conveniently posted onto the Mobile-Review forums by a Nokia employee) talks up the usual release day shenanigans: buyers camping for days, bribery attempts for spots in line, inventory disappearing in minutes, and an inevitable prediction that this thing will be bigger than the iPhone. However, while the memo liberally quotes from the LiveJournal musings of Mobile-Review editor Eldar Murtazin, it skips over one choice bit of information he provided: a measly 120 phones were available at this "flagship" location in Moscow.

[Thanks, pops]

[Thi mam(kris120890) @ Nov 28th 2008 9:36AM]

If all phones sold out then I consider that a success in russia. Anywhere else then I don't know. In my town on launch day of the iPhone they were only 50 and they all sold out.

[Thi mam(kris120890) @ Nov 28th 2008 9:41AM]

I predict the next proper Nokia touch screen phone will outsell the iPhone considering Nokia is bigger than apple.

[iEye @ Nov 28th 2008 9:45AM]

I predict the next honda civic to outsell the Aston Martin because honda is bigger....

[Who Knows @ Nov 28th 2008 9:47AM]

Samsung is bigger than Apple as well. But did the Instinct outsell the iphone?

[Thi mam(kris120890) @ Nov 28th 2008 9:47AM]

Two completely different markets. You make yourself look stupid so no one else has to.

[Kelmon @ Nov 28th 2008 9:47AM]

I'd take that bet. Size is no determinant of market success otherwise Apple would have got nowhere with the iPhone. The iPhone is practically the only phone you hear about these days so before Nokia can outsell the iPhone they need to get their product talked about more. I wish them the best of luck in doing that.

[Thi mam(kris120890) @ Nov 28th 2008 9:49AM]

In N.America yeah. Anywhere else then Nokia will sell more.

[Soulsaber @ Nov 28th 2008 9:49AM]

@iEye
umm the civic does outsell aston martin.....i do not see your argument.

[Thi mam(kris120890) @ Nov 28th 2008 9:52AM]

@Soulsaber
Thats why I said two completely different markets.

[tom @ Nov 28th 2008 9:54AM]

@soulsaber

iEye's is a contrasting comment to Thi Mam, as in..DUhhhhh, of course

[iEye @ Nov 28th 2008 9:56AM]

Honda civic = good car, cheap, many sold, good profit

Aston martin = outstanding car, expensive, few sold, large profit

Nokia = honda

iPhone = Aston Martin

[asg84 @ Nov 28th 2008 10:20AM]

definitely this phone is going to outsell iphone regarding its price and functionality with in few months,

hoping price will come down soon after the hype is over

[Arun @ Nov 28th 2008 10:35AM]

iPhone = Aston Martin

?

I have an iPhone and the call quality sucks. A $10 refurbished Nokia Phone has better call quality. Having said that, I still agree that iPhone is the best touch screen mobile phone out there, if only they had concentrated a bit more on the 'phone' features.

iPhone = Very good Gadget, Very poor phone.

[giuliop @ Nov 28th 2008 12:21PM]

I predict you can't predict whether your prediction is unpredictably predictable.

[fikhl @ Nov 28th 2008 2:48PM]

The problem is,even Nokia's 'midrange' phone is kicking iPhone in the ass in terms of features and specs.That's why everyone's bitching about it. Looking forward to high-end touchscreen Nseries coming next year, that's where it truly hurts...even further.

[Atanas Boev @ Nov 28th 2008 5:24PM]

Come on people! It is not about being fan of one or another brand. It is all about usability - both Nokia and Apple claim their products are great in that.

I had both phones side by side. Working. I will not say who was (way) better, not to start flamewar :) I say you try them both. Come later. Comment.

[Newone @ Nov 28th 2008 9:39PM]

Wrong car's

Iphone= VW New Beetle = Ovepriced car for people who don't mind if it's impractical as long as it makes them feel hip

Nokia = Toyota = Practical cars of many sizes and shapes with decent price

[L @ Nov 28th 2008 9:44AM]

So they had only 120 devices there at launch. That another 900 people were there and signed up for the waiting list (as the post also mentions) is conveniently absent from Engadget's article. Hmm, what a surprise...

[KIFF @ Nov 28th 2008 10:15AM]

Anything to make Apple look better than Nokia...

Oh En"gadget"...

[ILoveApple @ Nov 28th 2008 10:49AM]

If it was Chris Ziegler that had written the article, I'm sure it would have been mentioned. Unfortunately, the rest of the Engadget team suffer from extreme Apple Fanboyism so it really is to be expected.

[kode @ Nov 29th 2008 3:06AM]

I use macs mostly and I also nowadays use Nokia N82, and I love them all. But I don't like fanbois at all, and Apple sort of pisses me off with the way they behave. Nokia as a company seems much more humane, although of course they are in it for the money, too. I know S60's ease of use is probably not as slick as iPhone's (I've never used an iPhone) but from what I've read and heard iPhone is pretty closed system, where it's Apple saying what one can do with it. I've pretty much enjoyed my N82 and found all the apps I've needed for it.

Nobody probably cares but I just wanted to inform that I've now let Engadget go from my RSS-feeds because your constant Nokia-bashing makes absolutely no sense. Like an earlier commenter said not all of your readers come from the US (and neither do I) where Nokia is not as big as Apple is. As a user of both manufacturers' products I find it contradicting to constantly read posts that sound like they were written by a fundamentalist who just is unable to say anything good about someone who might be competing with their own religion, and of course in this case it's Apple. Even if you don't manage to slip the word 'Apple' or 'iPhone' into the articles you find a sneaky way to belittle the competition in some way. Well, I've had enough of that.

And a bit more about my stance on Apple: I've used their computers for about 15 years now, but the last computer I bought was a pc. I did buy Leopard for it because I don't like Windows and most of my bought software was mac-only, and I'm happy now. I can play games in Vista when I want and then come back to Leopard and do graphic design and 3D in it. I'm absolutely happy that I'm not completely dependent on Apple anymore, and of course I got my 4-core computer with half the price of about similarly spec'd Mac. I could've bought a Mac but I'm not too fond of Apple anymore, and eventhough it shouldn't matter I don't like to consider myself to be one of the Apple fanbois. As other fundamentalists do they make me feel sick, too.

[Thi mam(kris120890) @ Nov 28th 2008 9:45AM]

But you are rather Stupid. I'd rather have the iPhone over the M8. I'd have it over any other phone if it had the same specs as the nokia but just as cheap.

[Azlum @ Nov 28th 2008 9:48AM]

At least some of the pics i have seen about Moscow flagship store kind of indicate that there was alot of people on line outside Nokias store thought when other shops get it I don't think we will see any huge lines considering that every other shop and carrier will be selling it.
Impressive as there's no adverts about 5800.

iPhone with Nokia logo and same kind of web of sellers and carriers and it would have sold x10 the amount it have sold till now ;)

[iEye @ Nov 28th 2008 9:48AM]

That's ok, I have a sealed 1st gen iPhone... I am willing to sell it to you

...$5,000

[Thi mam(kris120890) @ Nov 28th 2008 9:53AM]

Doe it have the same specs and as cheap as the Nokia? No. So no thanks.

[Rauha @ Nov 28th 2008 10:01AM]

Engadget should just rename itself.

Appleget
AppleExceptInProductsLinesWhereAppleDoesn'tHaveProductsGet
Etc.

[iEye @ Nov 28th 2008 10:07AM]

Contrived is putting it mildly..

I bet 119 of those 120 people were paid to line up to "buy" said nokia phone....

[rauhaa @ Nov 28th 2008 10:07AM]

I don't have anything against Apple sites as such. I actually like Macrumors and Appleinsider, but Engadget used to be nice site to check info about Geektoys. Now it has evolved into Apple-fan site that bashes anything that competes with Apple products, and should rename itself accordingly.

[Patriks7 @ Nov 28th 2008 11:08AM]

"I bet 119 of those 120 people were paid to line up to "buy" said nokia phone...."

This is not the iPhone line..
http://www.engadget.com/2008/08/21/orange-paying-actors-to-line-up-for-the-iphone-3g-in-poland/
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10023144-1.html

[Roll @ Nov 28th 2008 5:20PM]

You are kidding me. Nokia is the market leader with 39-40%(1.5 million phones sold a day and 42% on smartphones), Samsung is the number 2 with 17%, SE number 3 with 8%, Moto and LG with about 7%. Apple is some where in 0,5-1% market share i believe?

Living in NA probally make these number hard to believe :D

[Thi mam(kris120890) @ Nov 28th 2008 10:03AM]

@Who Knows
Samsung Isn't bigger.

[500e @ Nov 28th 2008 12:18PM]

I think you'll find that samsung is over three times larger than apple.

[Thi mam(kris120890) @ Nov 28th 2008 12:27PM]

The iphone has more market share than samsung mobile phones. So which retards low ranked me. That includes you 500e. So high rank me now.

[MattWPBS @ Nov 28th 2008 2:03PM]

Now are you talking US, Worldwide, total phone market, smart phone market, etc? Because I will honestly be shocked if Apple has a higher market share than Samsung in the total worldwide phone market.

[Roll @ Nov 28th 2008 5:00PM]

Nokia is the market leader with 39-40%(1.5 million phones sold a day and 42% on smartphones), Samsung is the number 2 with 17%, SE number 3 with 8%, Moto and LG with about 7%. Apple is some where in 0,5-1% market share i believe?

These numbers where updated after Q3 2008 reports.

Thought i have no idea how is Samsung doing in NA if you meant that.

[iEye @ Nov 28th 2008 10:03AM]

Well if you are a cheap person then stay with the cheap brand...

[Thi mam(kris120890) @ Nov 28th 2008 10:05AM]

And a more trusted brand.

[Gooey @ Nov 28th 2008 3:31PM]

In mother Russia telephone phones you.

[CJ @ Nov 28th 2008 10:56PM]

You telephone telephones?

Are you the kind of person to have meaningful conversations with answering machines?

[mobileme @ Nov 28th 2008 10:10AM]

@Ieye

I'd rather say

Apple = crippled car, not expensive but much too pricey for what it really worths, many sold - indeed - but only because of marketing (Mariah Carey sells, too... it doesn't keep her music from being a load of sh*t)

Nokia = usefull cars, from cheap to expensive (have you ever heard of vertu?), good because it gives you anything you could ask for and even more...

[Aaron @ Nov 28th 2008 10:17AM]

What's with the negative spin on every Nokia story, Engadget? They had 120 phones, they sold out in under 30 minutes. Apart from having more stock, what could they have possibly done to make this a bigger success? Organized a riot in the shop?

And what's with the random quotation marks around the word flagship?

This blog is read by a lot of people outside of the US. Most people around the world *like* Nokia. You might want to consider why Nokia are so successful.

[PatD. @ Nov 28th 2008 10:29AM]

"And what's with the random quotation marks around the word flagship?"

That caught my atttention as well. It's probably just to make the "article"* as condesending as possible.



*see what I did there.

[lman @ Nov 28th 2008 10:38AM]

Hey, at least this isn't like gizmodo, where they talk bad about other phones and ban you when you talk bad about the iphone. (if you have to ask, i got banned for a little joke about the mms thing)

[rauhaa @ Nov 28th 2008 10:42AM]

Well, the "journalist" of this "article" propably doesn't know that the shop in question is officially named Nokia Flagship Store Moscow.

As in: http://flagship.nokia.com/

[Magallanes @ Nov 28th 2008 10:53AM]

Engadget (like 99.99999% of the blogs around the net) is clearly subjectivist but at last they are a bunch of nice guys and you can argue about it without the risk to be banned.

[Al @ Nov 28th 2008 1:07PM]

I don't mind that Engadget is Apple slanted. The writers are at least competent and respect worthy. They have a lot of mongoloids who turn out drivel over at Gizmodo.

[MattWPBS @ Nov 28th 2008 1:53PM]

Just echoing the above comments about bias in Engadget articles when it comes to anything involving Apple, or any competition for Apple. It's getting seriously annoying, and to the point where it undermines the amount of trust and credence we can give to opinions on Engadget. I can understand that certain writers may have a personal preference (do you share staff with TUAW?), but surely they should try to put these aside in articles and retain some objectivity?

Honestly, it's off putting - both in terms of reading Engadget, and in terms of considering any Apple products recommended on Engadget.

[chilko @ Nov 28th 2008 10:37AM]

and thats well ahead the official start of the sales on december 5

[TitaniumMan @ Nov 28th 2008 12:18PM]

The sellouts right now are the Nokia fanboys, which explains why they were there despite the lack of advertising. Think of them like the Apple fanboys.
I don't think it means anything for 5800's commercial success. It is too soon.
Anyway, Russia is a strange market. I remember Mobile-Review saying that a huge number of Iphone 2G where sold in the black market a year ago.

[Fro @ Nov 28th 2008 10:56AM]

Having actually been to Moscow I've been in the store, if you want to see every Nokia available on sale in one place and handle them and see all the accessories in one place it's the place to go. It's not as nice as the Helsinki Nokia store but it's still got everything.