Nokia apologises for 'fake' ad

Telecom giant Nokia has apologised after being caught "faking" a demonstration of its new smartphone camera in an advertisement. 

The video clip, which screened on Wednesday at a media conference, purported to show how the company's new flagship Lumia 920 smartphone had a built-in camera with a special feature that could eliminate blurry images.
The ad shows a model riding a bicycle while a young man holding a Lumia 920 smartphone takes her photo using optical image stabilisation.
But the advertisement has been ridiculed online after eagle-eyed viewers spotted the reflection of a professional camera operator in a window behind the young woman.
Nokia claimed this week it did not mean to mislead viewers into believing the ad had been filmed with its new smartphone when it was in fact made with other equipment.
"We apologise for the confusion we created," Nokia wrote in a blog post entitled An Apology is Due.
"In an effort to demonstrate the benefits of optical image stabilisation (which eliminates blurry images and improves pictures shot in low light conditions), we produced a video that simulates what we will be able to deliver with OIS."
"Of course, hindsight is 20/20, but we should have posted a disclaimer stating this was a representation of OIS only. This was not shot with a Lumia 920. At least, not yet," the Finnish company added.
Nokia, once the world leader in mobile phones, has been struggling in recent years, losing market share as consumers move to smartphones powered by Apple's iOS or Google's Android operating system.
The company enjoyed more than 40 percent of the global mobile phone market in 2008. It no longer provides its global market share figures, but has reportedly seen the number drop below 20 per cent.
The company launched a new strategy a year-and-a-half ago, phasing out its Symbian smartphones in favour of a partnership with Microsoft.
On Wednesday it presented two new Windows-powered phones, the Lumia 820 and 920. While analysts were generally favourable to the phones, most suggested they would have a hard time competing with Apple's new iPhone 5 due to be launched next week.
The Nokia share price slumped more than 10 percent after Wednesday's launch, and shed another 3.0 percent in Helsinki on Thursday.
In June, the company announced 10,000 job cuts would be needed on top of the 12,000 layoffs already announced in the past 18 months, and an additional $2 billion in cost cuts by the end of 2013.

ninemsn.com.au 7 Sep 2012

Nokia was fully aware of the depicted deception, but go caught out.

Now Nokia will be fined in the European courts?

Comment from ninemsncom.au readers:

Lotuk:


I hate it when companies do this. But they all do it. No one has enough faith in their product to use the features they're selling (or pretending work like they say). Take a look at any ad with video playing off of a device. It has been edited in afterwards to make it look clear. Because video chat would look horrible if they showed it running in real life compared to post editing it in.

I mostly just hate that they said "Nokia claimed this week it did not mean to mislead viewers into believing the ad had been filmed with its new smartphone". Seriously?? Who the hell believes that. We know they do it. They're just sorry they were caught.

I personally think there should be laws that require any fake material pretending to be real should be clearly labeled as such. It's false advertising that's been allowed for too long.