Sad news, social shutterbugs. Nokia doesn’t plan on bringing the megaspectacular 808 PureView to North American markets. The 41MP camera-that-happens-to-also-have-phone-functions will not make the trip ‘cross the Pond. Nokia apparently plans on releasing it in countries where Symbian phones actually have a following and it has a chance of making a splash.
It’s hard to argue with Nokia’s decision. With a massive body and a dying OS, the 808 PureView is a niche handset. There is no way it will be a blockbuster hit, worthy of a global marketing and distribution plan. But Nokia reportedly spent five years developing the technology and it deserves to make some people happy.
This little tidbit was found by PhoneArena within a footnote on the phone’s product page. Global is listed under the Regional Availability heading but the footnote indicates that excludes North America.
This shouldn’t really come as a surprise. Nokia’s Symbian handsets were never a big selling the states and the company’s recent moves with Microsoft shows that Nokia is going all-in with Windows Phone. The 808 is for diehard Nokia fanboys and there are not that many of those left in North America.
Symbian is still alive in overseas markets. It will eventually succumb to Android, iOS and even Windows Phone but it’s about to get a shiny new flagship to rally behind. Hopefully Nokia sees some success in the 404 and carries through with its plan to port the technology to its Windows Phone handsets — and shrinks it down to a manageable size.