It's always frustrating to buy a fancy piece of gadget, only to find it's about to phase into a forgotten generation soon enough. That's the case with people who have bought Lumia 800 and 900 recently. Technically the best Lumia phones today, but are to be rendered primitive by the Lumia 920 within a few weeks. Many have complained about this and the lack of a full Windows Phone 8 update for existing Lumia devices. Apparently Nokia has listened to feedback provided and is about to something to ease the pain. As least in China.

Nokia China is giving each new Lumia 800 and Lumia 900 owner (when purchased between October 8 and November 8 2012) a Play 360° speaker, completely free. If you are in China, and your Lumia isn't bought in the black market, just hit the official give-away page, leave your Nokia account and phone info, plus the receipt for the purchase. Fill out the form and wait for your free Bluetooth speaker to be delivered in 30 days.

This is a great deal. Currently the Lumia 800c (the Lumia 800 in CDMA flavor for China Telecom) is priced at about CNY 1,500 ($240), and a Play 360° is worth about the same. The downside is that Nokia China only has 5,000 speakers to give away. Those who want one are recommended need to move in fast.

Update:

Apparently this has come to a Catch 22 situation. Chinese Lumia owners have to meet multiple conditions to be qualified for a free wireless speaker: phone must be legal Chinese release, must be purcahsed between October 8 and November 8, and the Nokia account must be created in SEPTEMBER 2012 or earlier.

So it has come to this:

  • Old Nokia supporters generally know to hold back a bit on their purchases and wait for Lumia 920. Account check, Lumia 800 & 900 check, purchase time fail.
  • New guys to Nokia and Windows Phone do not know about the Windows Phone 8 fuss and the coming of 920. They tend to buy Lumia 800 and 900 within the required time frame. However, chances are slim that any of them has a Nokia account created back in September or earlier.

Combined, I'm seeing multiple people yanking their hairs in frustration: "I ALMOST got it!"

And judging by the responses in the comments here, I guess this will probably make some people happy...

Source: Nokia China, via: WPDang