Early adopters who got their hands on the Lumia 900 Windows Phone over the last week have two pleasant surprises coming from Nokia: The first is a software fix for data connectivity issues arriving next Monday, and the second is cold, hard cash (or rather, a $100 credit to their AT&T bill).
The Conversations by Nokia blog announced on Tuesday night that the company’s new Lumia 900 Windows Phone is off to “a successful sales start” with “a very positive response on day one.” Unfortunately, the good news made way for the less pleasant news -- addressing data connectivity issues that many users have been having with AT&T.
“Soon after this flagship device began selling, we identified a software issue,” the blog explains. “In short, a memory management issue was discovered that could, in some cases, lead to loss of data connectivity. This issue is purely in the phone software, and is not related to either phone hardware or the network itself. As a proactive and prudent measure, we decided to take immediate action. We have identified the issue, and have developed a solution.”
Nokia is offering users two options: Update their current device with this new patch via the Windows-only Zune software “on or around Monday, April 16th,” or swap out the handset for one that has already been updated at any A&T or Microsoft retail store.
But Nokia isn’t stopping there -- the company is extending the olive branch even further. In an impressive move, “ every individual who has already purchased a Nokia Lumia 900 -- or who will purchase one between now and April 21st -- will receive a $100 credit to their AT&T bill from Nokia.” Considering that the handset is only $99.99 with a two-year agreement -- and can be had for less through Amazon, Walmart and other outlets -- many users may actually wind up profiting from this act of kindness.
We’ve had our hands on a Lumia 900 since last week and chalked up some of our own issues to using our iPhone 4S micro-SIM with the device, but noticed last night that we can no longer maintain a solid connection to Visual Voicemail -- so there’s definitely something afoot that even a reboot of the handset won’t cure.
At any rate, it’s good to hear that Nokia is standing behind their new flagship device and doing right by the customers who will likely make or break its future.
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