Nokia hitting the U.S. with operation 'Rolling Thunder'

By Rich Edmonds
last updated

Nokia and T-Mobile U.S. are in full swing with their announced launch party of the Lumia 710, but what's coming up next for the Finnish Windows Phone manufacturer? Operation "Rolling Thunder", as it's internally referred to, is Nokia's plan for rolling out a number of handsets next year and aiming for multiple price points. Chris Weber, head of U.S. operations at Nokia, explained that the company will be at CES in January making a noise as they have been doing in Europe.

"We will be launching a portfolio of devices in the U.S. across a range of price points, user experience and operators. The rollouts are referred to internally as "Operation Rolling Thunder". We’ll have a very large presence [at CES] and it’ll be clear that Nokia is back in a quite strong way in the U.S."

We'll be sure to check out CES in Las Vegas to see what Nokia will be bringing to the event. The Nokia Lumia 900 is still on the list, a more powerful option for U.S. consumers, and is set to hit the states early 2012 if rumours are to be valid. Nokia has the daunting task of getting carriers on side to stock their Windows Phones. Battling hard against the iPhone and a plethora of Android handsets will make a successful and effective marketing campaign all that more important.

Source: Bloomberg, thanks to Baljinder for the heads up!

Rich Edmonds
Rich Edmonds
Senior Editor, PC Build

Rich Edmonds was formerly a Senior Editor of PC hardware at Windows Central, covering everything related to PC components and NAS. He's been involved in technology for more than a decade and knows a thing or two about the magic inside a PC chassis. You can follow him on Twitter at @RichEdmonds.

26 Comments
  • i like that!
  • This is pretty much what we already knew... startin last year when Nokia announced a plethora of devices in 2012 to be released every few months. Excellent strategy if you might ask me. Everywhere you look in 2012, you will see Nokia. Akin to how 2011 was the year of Android
  • But most likely Carriers means ATT and Tmobile.  But it would be great if Sprint would update there 1 Windows Phone to a new Nokia 900.  If you will stock only one might as well be the best.  But unfortunately Sprint bought 15 billion dollars of iHype and I dont foresee it happening.   
  • ATT gets all the love. T-Mobile gets the budget phone love. Sprint and Verizon gets no love. 2012: everybody gets some Windows Phone love. Hopefully.:)
  • Well, I'm really excited to see some high-end Nokie devices!!  I have a couple of buddies that have Droid phones and they are actually waiting to see what Nokia brings to the table so they can possibly jump ship over to a WP Device.
  • Just want to point out that Operation Rolling Thunder was a section of Assault on the Control Room on Halo CE.  I know its a stretch, but could we see some Halo exclusive content for Nokia?
  • Unlikely; that's a pretty obscure use of the name compared with this one: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Rolling_Thunder
     
  • Verizon, are you listening?  Let Nokia in.  We need more than 1 lonely phone.  I order phones for my whole company and I need to be able to give people options.  Plus, my wife's phone is due an upgrade and I won't let her get iCrap.  Get on board Verizon.  I don't want to have to go to ATT just to have a better phone.  My Trophy takes the worst pictures of any phone I've ever used.  Now I would love some company to pick pocket some ideas from my first love, the Palm Pre.  Charging station would be awesome. 
  • With you on the Palm my son - what a waste :-)
  • Gotta give it to Nokia. They seeem to have a game plan, unlike other WP7 OEM, which I feel just release devices and hope they are a hit.
  • I find it interesting that companies reveal or leak SO much about their plans while Apple is still able to maintain their secrecy practices under control.
  • I understand how you all feel but Apple does not need to generate hype.  Their iSheep & the media do it for them.  HP's "Think Beyond" event is the perfect example of the point I'm going to make here.  HP absolutely had to generate their own hype (and they did a horrible job at it, by the way) in order to gain any traction in the media so they waited and waited for the right time to have this event.  They even passed up CES 2010 and waited until February for that event.  Now while I would say that it was initially successful, they still tried to follow the "Apple" model and tried to be secretive for months about release dates and everything.  As opposed to continuing to generate buzz globally.  Nokia has done exactly the opposite of both companies and they have managed to create an air of excitement about their products that even the salespeople at my AT&T store has heard about.  From 500 story projections of the Lumia 800 to rumor talk of the 900 here in the states next month, I think this time we can truly say "Everybody On".  Nokia's marketing team relaizes that transparency in all the right ways will win the hearts and mind battle for mind & marketshare right now.  They have no choice but to let everyone know that they are coming.  I am ready for the media blitz stateside that I have seen and heard about online.  Nokia, BRING IT!!!
  • How are iSheep different than Nokia Sheep?  Or Microsoft Sheep?   People make comments about paying an Apple Tax (markup) for Apple products, but what is Nokia doing different?  With the way Windows Phone is structured, no one should pay more than $.01 for a Windows Phone.  Yet Nokia comes to market with a subsidized Lumia 710 for $49.  Not going to fly when your competition is available for free.  Maybe the Nokia Sheep will buy Nokia products, but the rest of the US has moved on.
  • You must be an apple fan and took offense to his comment?  Or do you dislike WP7 phones?  I just don't understand some of the comments but your comment that all windows phones should be one penny??!!?? That makes zero sense. Why is that? Back up your assertion that WP7 should not be priced above a cent and priced less than androids/iphones despite the fact you cannot make a phone for a penny. The quality of many WP7 devices meet or exceed other devices.  You can get a varied selection of devices except iphones for a penny with a 2 year contract.  Just because something is free doesn't mean competitors should scale back quality to push a poor device.  It would be great for the consumer if more devices are a penny including iphones. 
    BTW: Before I moved to Sprint I first purchased the HD7 for a penny and paid 100 for my wife's android phone.  so...
  •   I'm not saying that the phones should be free, I'm saying that they ARE free.  Retailers such as Amazon Wireless have always sold WP7 for $0.01.  If you want a higher end phone like the Samsung Focus S you need to cough up the big bucks ($20).   What I wrote wasn't directed at Apple or Android, but other WP7 manufacturers.  Nokia can't sell a low end phone targeted towards the low end of the market when basically the same phone can be had for free (HTC). BTW, I own and love a Samsung Focus.  Cost me a $0.01.  
  • Not going to fly when your competition is available for free.
    The Apple competition isn't available for free.
    The obsolete 3GS, with its low res screen and slow chip, sells for a lower up-front deposit.  Of course, your first month of service, you'll pay about $50 more for service on an unlimited plan than you do with T-Mobile.  Then, over the rest of your two-year contract, you'll pay over $1,100 more.
    That's not "free."  That's paying four figures more to get much, much less -- lower resolution screen, lower system performance, poorer game performance, a worse camera, poorer build quality and a lower-quality OS experience on a three-year-old design.
  • I was thinking the same thing the other day.  I remember back in the day when E3 would come around and everyone would mess with Nintendo because they would actually NOT leak everything before their event.  Nowadays it seems that we know everything before these "huge" events and I miss that feeling of not knowing what to expect....
  • I know, right? It's always a good feeling to be pleasantly surprised.
  • I'm hoping one has a keyboard like the N8's.
  • @lippidp...Well, the N8 doesn't have a physical keyboard; and the on screen keyboard is...just not great, based on my experience with it. 
     
    Now, if you really want to hope for a physical keyboard, well the N950 (which is basically the N9 with a keyboard) with Windows Phone would be a nice one to pin your hopes on :)
     
     
  • How old are we when we use terms like isheep? Seriously, people buy the stuff they want to buy.
  • hmmm. good question.  12?  that is my final answer.
    :)
  • well you can go and ask the same question to people who use $ on Microsoft/MS
    and go and troll in every Microsoft related news (google or Apple fans), like how Windows Phone may have virus like windows.
    because age doesn't matter, Humans fighting over whatever crap they can find, even if its a piece of plastic like a phone. humans sometimes seem like they cant be happy :)
     
    so seriously, as people buy the stuff they want, they can say also whatever they want as well :).
     
    i dont understand these wars bewteen OSs and phones and crap. there is more important stuff like family that we may lose tomorrow, you know, real important stuff. but if i care about what people say, its the same as saying what those people say. I only think, if you dont like it, ignore it.
  • I am excited to see some of the nokia's in person.  It won't matter if Sprint does by into carrying Nokia however.  ATT and TMobile's service is atrocious in my neck of the woods. 
  • The term iSheep doesn't refer to EVERYONE who owns or wants to own an iPhone. If the iPhone is the phone that best suits your needs/lifestyle, then enjoy! However, if you just want the iPhone because it's an iPhone, you my friend are an iSheep. Be aware of your options and buy the phone that best suits you.
  • "Operation Rolling Thunder"??? Who would even consider naming it that? Aside from someone who has never picked up a history book. Unless they think that naming a marketing campaign after a 3-year-long bombing campaign (that killed almost a quarter million civilians in Vietnam and Cambodia) during the Vietnam War is a good thing.
    I guess we should be glad they're not calling it "Operation Barbarossa."