Well, he did say "in most sane jurisdictions"

Out of curiosity, did you flash PR1.2 or install the OTA update? Another possible difference is that my AT&T SIM is more accurately an AT&T Go Phone SIM, though I have a hard time believing that would influence anything.

Also, my N900's phone number was registered with My Nokia prior to the PR1.2 update. Conceivably, my phone could have checked with Nokia servers--via WiFi--during the update process and found I'd already registered. That would be...odd though. Sending text messages for registration wouldn't make sense if an Internet connection with the My Nokia servers had already been established.

I suspect one of us hit some odd, corner case bug.

Flashed, since I got it a week early.

Given the bugginess of the whole MyNokia setup on Maemo, I wouldn't be surprised.

I'm not sure if my 5800 ever registered with MyNokia.

I was not aware of this. Well then, that makes sense now. Pfsht. What a tool I've been.

People, information gathered from most devices sold by Nokia is invaluable to their business, determines launch dates, schedules, order of countries, number of devices, hell, it is the basis of all Nokia marketing and distribution, design, milestones.

Haha. Not going to be fixed. Do you realize you're asking Nokia to turn off its headlights on a night country road? This information is worth a decent chunk of their income and determines their reaction to market changes. And by "chunk" I don't mean a few percent.

None of those were ever finished. Nokia deals in fireworks and company image. You get attention with new launches, not with good stuff. Shallow, shallow, shallow.

That's why they launch 10 phones a year, that's why the never finish anything. It's more of a marketing boost to launch a new tech than to finalize it. Keep launching, keep attracting attention.

This is 2010. People buy devices like jewelry. Logo on it is deeply important, I've seen people argue about manufacturer while never using anything above Contacts, Last Dialled and the red and green buttons. One can't afford to be out of the spotlight.

Do you really think iStuff would have any kind of market share if they were black, featureless, and Just Worked? No way. Low screen resolution, locked OS, bluetooth limitations, no pen.

The fight is for spotlight. It's no coincidence it's a theater out there, CEOs included.

Carriers are localized companies. They are founded in their respective countries, subject to local laws, and publishing this kind of info in most countries (US is funny) is going to get them deboned. Also, the carrier has this leash that we call radio license. They are not about to tug on that.

If Vodafone Romania sold some of its database to a 3rd party it'd be facing criminal charges and the person signing that paper (along with others) would be facing jail. Say what you will about corruption, but in high profile cases bribing simply doesn't work.

And it's not like it's jail they're afraid of - people escape judicial systems all the time, everywhere. It's the fines that I'm sure they find deeply unfunny. You can't get out of that, because that money goes to the state. If you want to keep doing business, you have to pay (or they take anyway). And it's not like these are people you can pay back later, if ever.

Asking the local carrier simply doesn't fly. They could at most tell Nokia how many they sold, which is bogus, because so few are sold through them. Plus, they get a number, not a log. Plus, no resale, no second hand, no usage.

No, they have to do it, because Nokia is not a company in your country, so there. If you don't like it, whatchagonnado? Ban Nokia? So what, they can afford to lose part of the country, and I say part because people would still buy by order. And back in Finland, well, I hear they are not exactly shaking in their boots.

I'd go as far as to say Nokia values the collection of data more than they value a market. Timing a release and molding their next device to sound like the next iStuff killer (and I stress SOUND LIKE) is going to net them more cash than a single country, with few if any exceptions. Especially a small-sale EU country, perhaps that's why US was partly spared.

Remember, the figures show them per-country market penetration, adoption rate, and per-device, per-OS sales graph. This is the stuff dreams are made of.

Quite possibly a violation of Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code § 17529 unless Nokia can convince the courts that they have an ongoing business relationship with the user. The fact that there is a cost to opt-out would certainly not sit well with any jury. Courts have already found that text messaging qualifies under either or both email or telephone delivery.

I don't know who "we" would be sufficiently as to say positively one way or another. I have heard several discussions on topics that range close to this, so in that sense I guess I can say that "we are discussing this". I certainly have my own opinions and express them when possible. Then again, there are many hallways and meeting rooms where discussions are had and decisions get made. Sometimes it's just hard to come here and say that I can't say much more, and easier just not to say anything. I hope you appreciate the sentiment, although I know it isn't of much value.

I guess it is a good mental exercise for everyone concerned to put an imaginary Nokia side hat on and think about why Nokia does what it does, for instance in this case of MyNokia. Nokia, Ovi, services etc. What would you do as Nokia... When trying to find and propose solutions the best proposals are of such a nature that are usually win-win, i.e. rather than just saying "don't do this" if you figure out great ideas on how to do things in a way that would please both parties, then those ideas have a much higher likelihood of those ideas finding some ground and going forward.

I wore that hat for 3 years.

I know what I did in similar circumstances: pushed hard until people got tired of hearing from me. Sometimes the logjam was freed and sometimes it was stupidly reinforced.

Nokia can and should do better at putting customer hats on. This one was a no-brainer: add an opt-out at the very least.

Deal. I don't own hats so I'll use a piece of paper.

"Ok, I'm this hude company and I want stuff from THEM. But, they'll probably want stuff from ME.

What do I have that I could offer to the oafs that would SEEM like value, but cost me nothing?

I know, I'll give them free stuff. Pain free, free stuff.

What do I have laying around? Cool, a few games from Nokia Labs folks. Ok, register your phone and get this stuff free.

What else? Oh, I know. I'm making like 5 bucks off the OVI store. Let's give the oafs a humongous discount, like, 50% for a year. Or on all already-here apps, since they are like 3 that are pay.

What else? I know, ease of use. How about everyone that registers gets this pain-free stuff, like, the ability to use an account based on their IMEI or something to drop files? Like a drop box, but without having to go through registration? Like an online clipboard, or something. They can use it for backup.

Ohh, backup. I know, I'll add WGET to backup app so they can store it online. Hey, it's like 10 MB max, everyone gets one online file or something.

Let's see, how about pretend we give them stuff, but not give them? Like enroll them in a a beta something, release a few things early for registered users? Not release, but promise. Next app you get first.

What else? I know, if they register, give them "gold" OVI membership, with twice the storage nobody uses. And increase the limit for images, since nobody carries huge images.

Hell, we can even add a few features they woefully deserve and make it an OVI Gold pack and give them that

Or maybe write a few cool tools and only make them available to OVI registrees.
"

I'll have to pause now, it's giving me this ungodly urge to release a new model of something.

For me it's a little bit disappointing the fact that today I found a mail from a Nokia partner asking to answer to their questions since I am a n900 owner and they got my adress from nokia.
I mean: this is a disappointing spam. I never accepted that my data could be given to someone else except from Nokia.

You signed it.