Yep, believe it or not our poor friends across the pond in the USA are still yet to receive their update of Symbian Anna for the Nokia N8. The reason for the lack of update has been shrouded in mystery and nobody quite knows exactly what the delay is or why – however a few people have been told various different things; take for example “the servers are down” (this was early September – they still down are they, dear Nokia?) and then there is the supposed issue with carriers which needs to be tended to.
In truth Nokia are stalling for some reason and nobody knows why and i doubt we will know any time soon. It almost looks as though Nokia are trying to kill the little support they have in the USA for their handsets, if they keep this up they can bet their millions that the American market will push Nokia further out of their thoughts and continue with buying phones like HTC, iPhone et al.
Note: I will be sending Nokia an email this week to see where we’re at and see if we can get some answers for our American readers. Hopefully we will get an honest reply with some sort of timetable as to how long you could be expected to wait – at this rate though it looks like Symbian Belle will be released before the prerequisite Symbian Anna update – i’m trying to find the logic in this, but it really looks like it is heading this way.
Anyway, we will keep you updated if were hear anything back. We’ll do our best to get some answers for you, those which you rightly deserve.
Do you live in America and own a Nokia N8? We’d like to hear your thoughts. As an American owner of a Nokia device, does their lack of support for Anna, plus their lack of communication regarding the problem give you a reason to never buy a Nokia device again? Let us know!
Update 1
We’ve had a reply from someone over at the USA offices, however we’re still awaiting another reply from others at Nokia. If this yields no answers, next step is to contact the corporate offices to seek a reply.
“Hi Nick-
I wish I had a definitive answer for you. Unfortunately, there are so many factors in play when it comes to testing and getting approvals that vary from device to device and country to country that come into play (local device variants, network restrictions, etc.) that make a guess at specific timing almost impossible. I’ve been speaking directly with some of the team working on this and they are also eager to get this software into the hands of our customers here in the US as well – and are working hard to make that happen both quickly and with the highest level of quality.
Best-
Keith”
Update 2
Coming soon (once we get a reply).
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39 Responses
No update in canada too
Thanks for this update! I find it soooo frustrating that the stories I come across online about Nokia always seem to be for countries other than the US. I mean, reading online about how “Belle” updates are now available and not being able to figure out how to even update my N8 to “Anna” is just too frustrating.
I’ve been a devout Nokia customer since 1998 and I am just so disappointed in many of the decisions made and actions taken in the last year or so. The closing of their flagship Michigan Avenue store in Chicago was a real blow to service and consumer confidence. I hope they reconsider keeping us in the loop or I do fear that I’ll have to give up on them! I really, really, really do not want to go to a Windows-based phone and I won’t go to that iCompany either.
Thank you, N8 Geeks, for your efforts to get to the bottom of this. I own the Nokia N8, which I purchased outright, since no U.S. carrier offers anything but the simplest Nokia device with a subsidy. Most Nokia owners in the U.S. probably should be considered among Nokia’s most diehard supporters, since almost all of us had to pay full price in order to obtain an unbranded Nokia device.
Nokia has repeatedly asserted how it feels the U.S. market is important to its position in the global smartphone market.
Despite both these points, however, Nokia has utterly failed to provide its U.S. customers with any reason to either continue to use the smartphones they own or plan to upgrade to a new Nokia device.
It is hard not to conclude, based on Nokia’s treatment of its U.S. customers, that it is attempting to undermine U.S. support of the Symbian OS. The question is whether U.S. customers will assume Nokia will treat them any better, when their handsets are using the Windows Phone OS.
Personally, it’s going to take some spectacular hardware, to get me to buy a Nokia device with WP7 on it. Even then, given the cavalier disregard with which Nokia appears to be treating its U.S. customers, I might yet give a new Nokia a pass.
Oh, let’s not forget all the things that you still cannot do, with a Nokia phone. No streaming Netflix, no reading Kindle or Nook (commercially-available) ebooks, no ability to sync categories and to create filters to view appointments, tasks or files based on their category. . . Nokia has a lot to fix, in its line of so-called “smart phones.”
I don’t know man, as an N8 owner, I’ve lost the little confidence I had been holding on to for a while. The awol update for NAM S3 devices, and the refusal to release the N9 here in the states is just more than I can tolerate right now. Nokia does not seem to care about shedding any light on any of this and so I feel they don’t care about me as a long time Nokia device user any longer. I am really considering jumping the Nokia ship and trying the Android platform….Nokia is making my decision very easy. Nokia I hope you are reading this because I can guarantee you there are many today that feel the same way as I do.
I hope we can finally get some answers for you guys, i’m just waiting for Nokia to get back to me. If they don’t provide any logical answers then i’m going to push this further and try to get answers from the people who are directly regulating its release, either that or someone from head office. This is getting ridiculous now (or rather has become) and they are screwing with their chances at gaining market share in the US.
To be honest i’ve sold my Nokia N8 now and won’t be ever buying another Nokia device. I’ve moved over to the dark side, to the iPhone – best decision ever. A company that care and give its users answers without question – whereas Nokia, no matter what you do, fail to offer any form of answer to any question that’s not directly related to the phone.
I commented a few times on the nokiausa site but kept getting yelled at for complaining about no updates.
My N8 came from Amazon _after_ Anna was released and I would have returned it the next day if I had known that over a month later I still wouldn’t have it. I need portrait qwerty and didn’t buy the phone until I knew it had it.
I, too will be watching the iPhone carefully to see if the camera is above average. What’s the point of having the best camera smartphone if you can’t even get the updates and fixes that the rest of the world has.
On the Nokia site, one of the employees said that 92% of the Nokia phone base had Anna available – and Canada, Australia and the US don’t have it. That means all together we are a whopping 8% – which shows why we’re made to wait.
Terry
I bought a N8 outright after having an HTC phone. I just didn’t get same reception as my old Nokia Phone. The reception is great, giving up netfilx was a little rough but not a deal breaker. But I really want the Anna browser update (I use Opera when I don’t need flash) and the camera update.
I mean the two reasons why I love the N8 are the antenna and the camera.
p.s. I really, really want an ebook reader, too. The old Palm ereader opens but won’t download books. Netflix would be nice but not as important.
Terry
I am a Nokia N8 user in Fort Lauderdale Florida. I will confess the lack of support is disconcerting. Many people advised me that I should have gotten the iPhone 4 vs. any Nokia wireless phone. But unlike most, I actually still have verbal communication on my phone and don’t need my calls dropping on an antennagate wireless device combined with AT&T’s “Swiss cheese” like network. One of many advantages of the N8 is its “signal hound” like dual antennas (which by the way did anyone notice Apple did a similar configuration to their 4S as to the N8 [top and bottom] antennas???). Although I am on T-Mobile USA’s network, the N8 seldom drops calls. Its stellar battery life and its great camera also help. But, the OS is feeble. I often get re-booting on my wireless phone although I power it down at night on a nightly basis. I believe the hardware does play a significant role as other T-Mobile users have complained of dropped calls and no service (the ability to make/receive calls in my office elevators), yet I don’t experience that problem. The hardware rocks, but the OS needs attention – can you say SOS? I called the 800 number for Nokia support and they too are in the dark. Hopefully when N8 Geeks e-mail Nokia all Nokia users will know more. I also do not have a problem sending my own email should the editor’s choose to release that info on an update page. I do not want to write an e-mail to the general Helpdesk as they know zilch. I can say that the iPhone 4S is looking very attractive since this is the “revised” version. I am still waiting to see how the wireless device does, partially the antennagate problem before dropping Nokia and not looking back. As many know, when the going gets tough, the tough get going – only in this case let’s hope the tough get tougher. Come on Nokia make us proud and give us the update or the information we so desire!
Nokia’s attitude has pretty much turned me off, especially dumping Meego for WP7 (not to mention this Anna update fiasco). I am following Samsung, who has picked up Meego, and with the continuing improvement in their hardware, I fully expect to abandon Nokia for Samsung when my N8 is ready for replacement.
What excuse is there to be made? For those with the know-how the update can be done with couple programs and a download. Also, only the C7 is offered by a provider and At&t doesn’t even know that I have an N8. What permission do they need?
I’ve been a long time supporter of Nokia here in the US. I really love how tough their phones are, and it’s kept me coming back. Over the years I’ve grown to really love Symbian, and it’s sad to see it go.
As for the Anna update here, I really can’t fathom what is taking so long. I’m a software developer, and considering the hardware here is the same. It just doesn’t make sense they haven’t released it here.
It’s bad customer service for an already super tiny group of hardcore Nokia fans here. While I doubt I’ll chuck my N8 for something else it’s pretty lame.
US E7 owner here… This is my second attempt at owning a unbranded Nokia… the first one I returned. I bought this phone for multiple reasons, but the main one is because it works with my current unlimited data plan. If the hold up has to do with working with the carriers and my data plan no longer works after the update I will be switching to an android phone.
The hold up is aggravating, but the silence about the hold up is absurd.
I am a US Nokia N8 user. I don’t like Apple’s business practices, so the iphone was out of the question. I wanted a GSM phone so that I could move and travel without complication, and the phones on offer from AT&T and T-Mobile were ugly, gimmicky, or Korean (every Korean product I’ve ever purchased has self-destructed). That means I had to buy an unlocked phone from the manufacturer. It was a tie for me between the Sony Arc and the N8. The N8 had a better camera, a larger internal memory and promised a patch to mend its poor browsing speeds. I chose the N8 thinking that it would be able to compete with comparable phones here in the US. It can’t. The hardware is good, the potential is there, but abysmal programming slows everything down. It is very unfortunate. Being left out is infuriating. I’ve seen entire datacenters built in the time Nokia promised to release the US update. In wartime, battleships are built faster. It took less than a decade to go from having the idea to putting men on the moon. Yet, Nokia cant release a PATCH in 8 months? It is just pathetic.
My next phone will be a Sony.
The mark of a great company isn’t what they do for 98% of their customers. It’s how they take care of the the 8%. Wasn’t it only a couple of years ago when Nokia ruled the mobile phone universe both here in the US and abroad? I remember my first Nokia. Can’t tell you what model it was but I remember it was huge. Then I got a couple of Samsungs after that. Then I stumbled on the N95 and I never looked back after that. Now, I got the N8. With the N86 as a backup. The N8 has pretty much relegated my wife’s digital camera to a backup role. The camera is the only reason I have put with the constant reboots, factory resets, repair facility visits, various errors, apps that generate those same errors.
I mean, when I bought this device, the MMS wouldn’t even work. I had to wait for the PR1.1 update and then the 1.2 after that. And it’s still havin various errors. My old N95 was more stable than this even after I hacked it! But, again, the camera. I have read various responses that basically told me to stop complaining and hack my phone if I can’t wait any longer. But I really don’t want to mess around with a 6-month old, $500 phone. And I don’t have to resort to such extremes just so I could get an updated OS. C’mon Nokia! There’s no carrier issues here since no carriers are carrying this device. Release the software and, if there’s any bugs, fix it with subsequent software updates! Just release it. You got nothin to lose, since we’re only 8% of your worldwide customer base.
Personally, the ATT variant of the Galaxy SII just got released here in the States. And my contract had been up for awhile now. Just saying. 8MP camera, 1080p recording, dual core, 1GHz, 1GB RAM…just waiting for a sale now. Won’t be long now. Anna better be here before that happens.
I’m in Australia. I get the impression that the US has always been difficult for Nokia, so I’m not surprised to read some of the comments above. e.g. because Amazon focus on the US, it’s not surprising that they dont provide a Symbian reader. But I dont understand why US, Canada and Oz are still waiting.
You asked if we would buy Nokia again, and if we lived in the US. I have the N8 in the US and I highly doubt I will buy a Nokia ever again. There are a few reasons for this, one definitely being the support or rather lack of support I’ve seen from Nokia this time around (Nokia used to be better as a company). Also, as good as Windows Phone has been rumored to be, I’m not interested in owning a phone with windows on it. Or Apple’s iOS for that matter. In my opinion, the least of the 3 evils is Android so I will probably switch to an android unit next IF some other phone doesn’t start using Symbian. And it’s not that I LOVE symbian, it’s not great, but for various reasons I prefer it over the others.
I’m actually a little sad too, because in the past Nokia’s hardware has been tops as far as I’m concerned. LIke other readers have posted, I still use my cell phone as a phone and I’ve never found another brand of phones that gets as good of reception or as clear calls as the nokias. I’ve also never been treated as poorly by any other company as I feel I have by Nokia.
So, sadly, so long Nokia!
Am I disappointed? Absolutely. Will this keep me from getting another Nokia with WP7? Probably not. There are a few things that I love about Nokia: build quality, camera, battery life, and Nokia Maps. If all of those are present in the upcoming WP7 devices then I will most likely get one when I decide to retire the N8. MS maintains a website that lists how far along all their devices are in the update process. You can see if it is in carrier testing or not and an expected rollout date. That is really cool, and I think it would alleviate another N8 update debacle.
I am a T-Mobile customer in the USA who originally purchased C7′s (Astound) for the family. A few months later, I purchased 2 N-8′s for me & my wife, directly from Nokia. They told me that I would be able to upgrade to Anna by the end of the summer. I loved Anna on my Astound, and I upgraded to the N-8 for the camera. If I would have known the issues with my email (which are fixed with Anna) and have to wait for Anna for so long, I would never have bought the N-8. I’ve been a loyal customer of Nokia for more than 10 years and I’m now getting frustrated. The N8 is an amazing piece of hardware, just want my Anna!!
I have an N8 in the USA, I am VERY upset with Nokia and the silence, more so than having the update or not. I have been a strong supporter and user of Nokia for many years but when I feel I have gotten my $500 worth, no more Nokia, Galaxy s II is looking sweet!
I’m very sad for this too. I live in Panama but I bought my N8 by Amazon.com, so I couldn’t update to Symbian Anna ‘cuz it’s not released on US. And there are a lot of user disappointed and angry for this here in Latinamerica. All the people want to update to Anna but it isn’t possible, so they go to jailbreak their devices.
@terryo: if all you need is qwerty, then you can install swype from betalabs. if you don’t like to “swype” you can just use the swype keys as a regular qwerty.
for anyone else: take the risk and flash your n8s with the leaked belle. i can tell you – it’s awesome
I’ve been using Nokia phones since 1999 and I currently use an N8. The Anna update debacle is not the only issue (at least in the USA) with Nokia. Customer Service seems to have fallen off in the past year or so. I actually used ovi services (calendar, contacts etc.) and synced via ovi sync OTA. On August 14th ovi sync stopped working on my daughter’s N8 as well as my phone. I contacted Nokia care by email about the problem. I was instructed to sync over wifi. Well of course I had already done this and told them so in a reply email. Nokia’s reply was that maybe my wifi signal was not “strong” enough. I assured them my signal was “strong” enough and also let them know that sync worked just fine on 3g previously. I was then instructed to submit my phone’s serial number so my problem could be elevated to the “highest priority” and was assured someone would be contacting me by phone “shortly”. It’s been awhile now and I haven’t heard a word via email nor phone. I really don’t know but I suspect Nokia has discontinued ovi services (at least here) but like the delayed Anna update, will not communicate with the customer. I pre ordered an Apple 4s and look forward to experiencing a different system.
For a few minutes, thought I lost my N8 today. I was almost relieved thinking I could get a new phone (NOT NOKIA) that had better PR communications and worked just as well as the N8. Found my N8 in the bottom of my briefcase a while later…was happy, but sad too. I’ll never recommend or buy another Nokia, Symbian or Windows. To have such poor communications with your users is a fatal flaw in all businesses. Meeting or exceeding customer expectations is the key.
@james: the ovi calendar service has been cancelled. sorry to inform you.
strange that nokia had not told you that. :/
@thequest I was aware that Nokia wasn’t supporting the calendar any longer. They claimed that you would still be able to sync but not access it on your computer. What about contacts and notes though? Why no definitive answer from Nokia? This is why they are losing customers here and probably around the world.
am from Jamaica… i check for the update every day. i bet ill get it b4 Nokia World 2011. am not upset or anything, Nokia is the Best n i will always be loyal to Nokia.
I’m in the US. What Nokia isn’t getting is that those of us in the US w/ N8′s had to go out of our way to get them. We are early adopters AND the people others look to for tech recommendations.
If we say not to buy Nokia, a LOT of others will trust our word.
All I can say is that it’s a damn good thing the N8 is a great phone. I love it. Otherwise, I’d also prob be really put off by the lack of service.
Wow!! nokia can’t see all this comments? Wait they don’t care!! why they are not been successful in the usa? Really!! Shows how smart they marketing team and ceo are!! yeah after spending $600 in my n8 & been loyal since the n95!!! I will never buy a nokia again and will always share my horrible experience and how we as customer!!! loyal customers got burn!!!!!!!!
It almost seems as if they’ve stopped support for the N8 here in the states. Very sad for Nokia to be treating its US customer base like crap!
Agust!!! september!!! october!! almost november!!! on to the next one!! not nokia!!
Order the Iphone 4s. Can’t wait any longer for this Anna update that Nokia isn’t giving any USA customers the reason why it wasn’t released yet. It’s flat out abuse to there customers here. I bet it’s a crappy update anyway. I’m sorry to say that after 10 years of Nokia I’m dropping them. I’ll see what if they change but I will do my homework and not keep wasting money on there products unless the reviews are really good.
I am in the US and having owned an E71 before (still use it as a backup phone) I was about to order an N8 from Amazon. Thanks for this blog, no way will I ever buy a Nokia if there is such a lack of support in the states. It would have been a risk anyhow, since by the time the Chinese brands take their low end share and Apple and Android take the smartphone share Nokia will be irrelevant. In order for Windows to save them they would have to have some sort of brand awareness in the states, and what little there is is awful.
I’m in Ireland with a US-spec unlocked N8, and the Store is showing me I can download the Anna update. Can I go ahead and get it? What are the downsides? Will the software then think I have an Irish N8 (and do I care if does)?
Anna update this morning!!!
Looks like it’s hitting the servers today:
http://www.symbiantweet.com/symbian-anna-update-now-available-in-usa-for-n8-e7-c6-01
Symbian Anna 25.7 is in north america, since this morning!
Well, Anna has arrived for NAM phones finally! Of course there is one issue people are having. After installing all 3 Anna updates, Anna update 1 shows it has failed to install. Being that this is a required update this seems to be false. Otherwise, everything went okay.
Completed the installation, my calendar used to sync to Exchange Server flawlessly, now it’s empty and my company does not support CWA servers. Boo. Do i seriously have to wait for a Windows phone for Exchange to work again?