周日，诺基亚（Nokia）和微软公司（Microsoft）联手在美国发布Lumia 900，希望借此挑战苹果（Apple）和谷歌安卓（Google Android）在全球智能手机市场不断巩固的主导地位。周一早上，我在因特网上进行了搜索，希望找到消费者排队购买该产品的图片或者视频。

    其实，我大可不必这么大费周章。2012年4月8日新品发布当日，为了获知这款手机在这个大日子的销售情况，《纽约时报》（the New York Times）记者尼克•宾顿花了很长时间，打电话询问了纽约市五英里周边所有美国电报电话公司（AT&T）零售店。其中19家商店没有接听电话，18家商店在电话中播放了复活节休息的录音，只有2家零售店营业，但他们表示尚未开始销售Lumia 900。

    等等，这一天是复活节吗？

    利害攸关，一个是全球最大的手机公司，另一个是全球最大的个人电脑软件公司，两家公司的营销天才们为何要选择复活节这个基督教第三大节日来发布意义这款不成功则成仁的产品呢？

    我能想到的唯一解释是，不管评价多高（实际上评价毁誉参半），这款手机并不能依靠自身优势来吸引像iPhone那么多的购买人群。因此诺基亚和微软公司在它发布之前就已经事先准备好了一个借口：

    当然没人排起长龙抢购Lumia 900手机了，因为所有商店都在放假！

    况且，诺基亚已经证明了它在消费者中的人气。在两天前举办的正式发布会上，激动的粉丝们把时代广场挤得水泄不通，YouTube网站上好多视频都能证明这一点。

    但问题是，捧场的粉丝们全都是冲着年轻性感的嘻哈歌手妮琪•米娜去的，而不是为了购买Lumia 900手机。

    译者：李玫晓/汪皓

    On Monday morning, the day after the U.S. launch of the Lumia 900 -- the device with which Nokia (NOK) and Microsoft (MSFT) hope to challenge Apple's (AAPL) and Google (GOOG) Android's growing dominance of the global smartphone market -- I searched the Internet for photographs or videos of customers lining up to buy it.

    I needn't have bothered. The New York Times' Nick Binton spent much of the big day -- April 8, 2012 -- calling every AT&T (T) store within five miles of New York City to see how sales were going. Nineteen didn't answer the phone, 18 played a tape saying they were closed for Easter Sunday, 2 AT&T resellers were open but said they didn't have the Lumia 900 yet.

    Wait. Easter Sunday?

    Why, with so much at stake, would the marketing geniuses at world's biggest cell phone company and the world's largest PC software company launch a make-or-break product on the third-biggest holiday in the Christian calendar?

    The only explanation I can think of is that this phone, no matter how good the reviews (in fact, the reviews were mixed), couldn't draw an iPhone-sized crowd on its own merit. So Nokia and Microsoft launched it with a baked-in, prepackaged excuse:

    Of course there were no lines for the Lumia 900. All the stores were closed!

    Besides, Nokia had already proven they could draw a crowd. For the phone's official launch party two days earlier, Times Square was busting -- as numerous YouTube videos will attest -- with excited fans.

    Only trouble is, they were all there to see the performance of a hot young hip hop artist -- Nicki Minaj -- not to buy a Lumia 900.