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Lumia 900 owner vents Windows Phone 8 frustrations, Stephen Elop responds

If you've been following our Windows Phone 8 coverage today, you know that anybody who buys a Windows Phone today will not be able to upgrade to WP8 when it ships this fall. If you were an early adopter that's not such a bad deal, but if you bought a Lumia 900 oh, say, three weeks ago you might be upset -- and rightly so. And rightfully angry is Luke, who sent us an email he fired off to Nokia's Stephen Elop and AT&T's Ralph de la Vega in which he asks why he shouldn't, right now, turn around and return his phone.

I just watched the Windows Phone 8 announcement and learned that the Lumia will not be upgradeable to WP8, it will more or less get a skin with the new live tiles and a few other features... at the end of the day unless one of you responds and convinces me to stay with Microsoft Windows Phone, Nokia Lumia or Att wireless I will just wash my hands of all three companies and move over to Verizon.

Surprise surprise, Elop responded very promptly, stating:

We have a lot of exciting capabilities coming as part of a pattern of updates for the existing Lumia products. This includes some of the most significant visual elements of WP8 – for example, the new start screen. As we have always been, Nokia is committed to delivering a long term experience to any purchasers of our products.

Granted, Nokia is bringing some nice updates to current Lumias, like some Scalado-augmented photo magic, but Elop's mention of "significant visual elements" leaves us wanting. We're waiting to hear what Luke's going to do, but here's your chance to weigh in. What do you think he should do? Full emails are after the break.

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Luke's email

Luke

I bought the Samsung Focus the day windows phone was released because I could appreciate the vision behind the OS and I enjoyed the aesthetics after being on android and iOS. The Focus served me well but it did not last the full 2 years of my contract on ATT. It would not charge even after a new factory battery was installed. Needless to say, I reached out for help from Samsung and they wouldn't even bother helping me and it was more of the same from ATT, they said they wouldn't help me and I needed to just sign a new contract and get a new phone. I reached out to Microsoft and at least they gave me feedback on the phone not charging even though there was nothing they could do. Since I had no other option I decided I had to sign a new contract and get a new phone which I did three weeks ago. I purchased the Lumia 900. My phone had the purple haze which the recent update addressed but it has also had other quirks, IE crashing randomly, videos stored on the device stuttering, data both LTE and Wifi randomly dropping and a screen flicker that happens periodically when you turn the power on. All of these things I never encountered on the Focus. Needless to say, I have 1 week left to get out of this contract and phone and walk away from all three companies for the low price of a $36.00 restocking fee, thanks Mr. De Le Vega, which I am seriously considering. On top of all of the previous problems I explained I just watched the Windows Phone 8 announcement and learned that the Lumia will not be upgradeable to WP8, it will more or less get a skin with the new live tiles and a few other features. This to me is the worse offense of all, I understand the Lumia doesn't have the multicore and NFC built in so all three companies will say the hardware doesn't support it, but at the end of the day unless one of you responds and convinces me to stay with Microsoft Windows Phone, Nokia Lumia or Att wireless I will just wash my hands of all three companies and move over to Verizon. I hear Google makes some nice LTE phones over there.

Dear Mr. Ballmer, Mr. Elop, and Mr. De La Vega,

Elop's response

Stephen

Regards,

As we showed today, we have a lot of exciting capabilities coming as part of a pattern of updates for the existing Lumia products. This includes some of the most significant visual elements of WP8 – for example, the new start screen. As we have always been, Nokia is committed to delivering a long term experience to any purchasers of our products.

Thanks for your note, Luke.