If you own a Nokia phone & your friend has exactly the same model as yours, then you would ideally expect that both of you would get important firmware updates from Nokia at the same time. Well, not really! The fact is that you must pray that Nokia has been kind towards your product code while releasing a firmware update for your phone model. Welcome to the unofficial lottery system of Nokia product codes.
What is a Product Code?
Every Nokia phone contains a product code, which contains data such as the phone model, the region it was released, language packs, keypad layout, etc. This product code is printed underneath the battery and is usually a 7 digit code which begins with a zero. Product codes are used by Nokia to control various variants of its firmware updates based on region & language.
The Product Code Lottery
Product code related firmware unavailability issues exist for almost all Nokia handsets, including the popular N97, 5800XM, E72 & N86, just to name a few.
To illustrate, Nokia 5800 (Red) is sold SIM free in India, under 2 product codes, namely 0575590 & 0559673. While product code 0559673 received firmware v40 with kinetic scrolling on 13th January 2010, product code 0575590 still has no firmware update available as on date. In fact this product code is still stuck at firmware v30 and has not even enjoyed firmware v31 which was made available to product code 0559673 on 14th September 2009. Customers buying phones with either of these product codes have paid the same price for their phone and purchased it from the same store. In fact in most cases, customers with product code 0575590 have paid much more since it was available in the market earlier than product code 0559673.
To make matters even worse, Nokia’s recent update to Ovi Maps with Free Lifetime Navigation can only be installed on Nokia 5800 with firmware v31 & above. In other words, if you have a Nokia 5800 with product code 0575590 then not only will you not have kinetic scrolling, but you will also not get the Ovi Maps update!
While the above illustration is a case of discrimination between different users in the same country, there are also cases of certain countries altogether facing delays in receiving firmware updates. Recently, agitated Nokia customers in UK launched a campaign for equality in getting timely firmware updates for all UK models.
Note that in case of network branded phones however, the responsibility of releasing firmware updates lie with the network as Nokia cannot force networks to make updates available, they can only recommend that the network approves it for release.
Firmware delays for North American (NAM) versions
Nokia’s customers in North America are also upset for receiving firmware updates much later than rest of the world. Phones in the NAM region do require a slightly different chipset because of the different frequencies that the region uses. But is it so difficult to port firmware updates over to the NAM versions in a reasonable time? Not surprising then that taking a cue from their UK counterparts, NAM customers have also recently started a similar campaign for equality!
Conclusion
Ideally, product codes are something which Nokia’s customers should not even know that they exist. They should only exist for Nokia to administer their firmware variants. In reality however, many customers are getting frustrated waiting for months for a firmware update & are discovering tools such as Nemesis Service Suite (NSS) & JAF to change their product codes & force newer update on their phones. In doing so, they take a risk of voiding their warranty, and possibly even bricking their phones. But has Nokia left them with a choice?
Lets hope that Nokia can soon get its act together in providing simultaneous firmware updates worldwide & ensure a positive customer experience for all its users. After all, iPhones & Blackberry users all over the world get their firmware updates simultaneously without any discrimination!
Have you also been a victim of the unofficial Nokia Product Code Lottery system? Do write your experiences in the comments section below.
I had same experience with N73, but with N82 I have been lucky.
Fortunately, for those who the firmware update is important to, flashing it to a different product code is relatively easy and risk free, compared to phones on other platforms.
Yes, I had that bad lucky. I bought Nokia 5230 with firmware 10.0.067 code 0592817 in Italy. I tried to update for the new firmware version spread out the internet (20.0.005) but I couldn't. The NSU said that my version is updated with the last version available. That's a pity, as you said IPhone and Blackberry are giving the same opportunity to all customs.
i Bought a Nokia 5130 on April 2010, it was made on February on this year but it came with the very old 05.80v. Now i decided to update my phone by changing the product code with Phoenix Service and i was able to update it to 07.91. This has been a long know problem with Nokia devices since i have Nokia phones but with time they have not fixed that. I´m seriously thinking to avoid buying Nokia devices in the future because of all this… I got tired
i Bought a Nokia 5130 on April 2010, it was made on February on this year but it came with the very old 05.80v. Now i decided to update my phone by changing the product code with Phoenix Service and i was able to update it to 07.91. This has been a long know problem with Nokia devices since i have Nokia phones but with time they have not fixed that. I´m seriously thinking to avoid buying Nokia devices in the future because of all this… I got tired