They say everyone's a critic these days, but here's a group whose critique matters: European carriers. Reuters has been asking questions at four major European telecom operators and reports that they're all dissatisfied with the company's current range of Lumia handsets. Describing the Windows Phone devices as overpriced due to their lack of real innovation, glitchy due to early battery life issues, and inadequately supported by Nokia's own marketing, the carriers seem to be in consensus about the new phones' failure to put up real competition to iOS and Android. Put in starker terms, they don't believe that Nokia's Lumia phones are "good enough" to compete. An executive in charge of mobile phones at one of the big Euro carriers is cited as saying, "no one comes into the store and asks for a Windows Phone," placing at least some of the blame for the tepid start to Nokia's reboot on Microsoft's shoulders.
"If the Lumia with the same hardware came with Android in it and not Windows, it would be much easier to sell."
Credit rating agency Moody's has also been piling on, following Nokia's recent warning about lower-than-expected Q1 earnings, downgrading the Finnish company to a Baa3 rating and its outlook to "negative." Still, in Moody's more detailed assessment, Nokia is expected to be "accepted in the market in 2012," with Windows Phone becoming the third leading mobile platform behind iOS and Android.