Lumia ICON Discontinued?

[op2388]

So I see the ICON is no longer being offered in the store and there is a post by a rep that it was discontinued. WTF Verizon?

First you don't even mention anything about an update you said you'd give and now you discontinue the device entirely? There are a lot of customers that got the device with your promises of an update in the near future and now instead of an update, you discontinue the device?

[Anonymous]

Even if the ICON is retired we have been promised by Microsoft that we will receive the 8.1 update this quarter. In the previous event that happened recently, you can watch the video on youtube, they specifically called out the Lumia icon name in getting the update first.

[primortal]

This is very disconcerting.  I'm curious to know why the Icon and not the 928, HTC 8X or the Samsung ATIV SE which are a lot older then the Icon.

If this is true and i hope it's not I'll be switching to AT&T once my contract is up.

The Microsoft Store and Amazon still sell the Icon.  Hopefully the person from VZW Support was mistaken.

[fkmalone]

Let's hope this is just a further demonstration of the ignorance of Verizon Support.  I know that somewhere there must be a good phone support person.  I have yet to talk to one though.

[Dregus311]

I actually talked to a great tech support guy last night, it was not his fault his company is a piece!  He did everything he could, including escalating a complaint up the chain.  Of course when put on hold who knows who he actually talked with.

[Dregus311]

Unfortunantly it is true that it has been retired, for poor sales apparently.  Customer service spent 2 hours on the phone with me last night as I complained about it and tried to asertain if we were going to get Cyan which enables LE BT for use with devices such as Fitbit.  It is completely redicuslus that they would do this without at least confirming they would release future firmware updates for phones less than 2 years old.  I switched from ATT for this phone and there better coverage, yet they take my hard earned money and throw this junk in my face.  I say we all contact the FCC and file complaints.  Even if there is no law requiring the update phoen firmware when released for said phones, there sure as heck should be!  I am not big on over regulation, but when people speed $500-$1K on devices they should get proper support for at least a couple of years.  Sad thing is MS can't do much about this as they gave Verizon Cyan and it is Verizon who is failing to put time towards testing.  The device was made for 8.1 (i.e. 930)!

[primortal]

I would guess the HTC Onr (M8) will be in the same boat in the next few months as well. So with the supposed poor sales of the Icon the 928 is selling better?

VZW just mights well dump Windows Phone all together and stop wasting customer time and money....

[Dregus311]

Yea I dont get it either. the 928 was a joke...nowhere near as good as the 920 was.  My parents got 928 on my recommend because I had a 920.  I played around with theirs and it was just an ugly build and 8.0 was missing entirely to much from the OS.  8.1 is pretty good and 8.1.1 is outstanding!

[jlesho09]

The Verizon Support Twitter account did indeed confirm last night that the Icon has been retired; but there may be more to the story. Some people have theorized that they've discontinued this SKU to make room for a Microsoft-branded (as opposed to Nokia-branded) version of the Icon that is pre-loaded with Cyan or Denim. It's an extremely optimistic theory that I hope is true, though admittedly I don't have high hopes.

Also remember that discontinuing sales does not necessarily mean that they will no longer support or update the existing handsets. Again, this is an optimistic viewpoint, and with the way the Icon has been treated so far it's not likely to come to fruition, but it's something to think about.

If the phone and all future updates have indeed been discontinued with no solution on the horizon, then I'll probably take my business elsewhere. If Verizon doesn't want to support me, I have no reason to support them.

[primortal]

I hope it's just a re-branding issue/new SKU.  But being VZW is so tight-lipped they can spit diamonds we just have to sit and wait speculating what's going on.

[fkmalone]

If the rebranding is true, then I wouldn't be surprised if marketing is hoping that we will dump the Icon for the rebranded one.  If it is just rebranded, that is just further proof that 8.1 and cyan work on the Icon and Verizon is holding it up.  They just want us to get another device.  I've got news for them.  I just got my Icon and I plan to keep it for a while now.

[clone525252]

http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/en_US/pdp/Verizon---Nokia-Lumia-Icon-for-Windows/productID... this link is to a 8.1 ready Nokia Icon for preorder in the Microsoft store but we cannot get answers for when we will get the update. WTF Verizon

[jharris326]

Ready just means IF the M***S at Verizon release the update it will load it.  It does not come WITH the update.

[primortal]

Wonder with us all complaining and filing FCC complaints about not getting the Windows Phone 8.1+Cyan, VZW decided to retired the phone

[bsites1968]

You could always daily harass their Twitter account @VZWSupport every day telling them it's time to release Cyan and then start the online chat and say we want Cyan and then close the chat. 

[bsites1968]

Or if someone has a media contact willing to keep on Verizon about it...  That could be really fun!

[stvnb36]

If Verizon discontinues support for the Icon I JUST got, I will discontinue Verizon to head back to AT&T.  Only reason I came to Verizon was for the Icon

[1bit]

Doesn't matter if they retire it so long as they pass through the updates. Actually, my take on this is that if it is retired then the 930 comes to the US on multiple carriers (maybe even VZW). I'd just switch our business Icons over to that carrier and I'm sure we'd get the firmware through them. Alternatively, I doubt MS will leave Icon users hanging and would just allow the Cyan/Denim updates to flow from them through a non-OTA update.

[primortal]

Technically the Icon and the 930 are identical devices so VZW wouldn't carry the 930 if they "retired" the Icon.

Hopefully the 930 or similar will make it's way to AT&T.  I don't see Sprint or TMobile getting any flagship devices anytime soon.

[loki666]

They're not identical devices in the sense that the Icon doesn't have the necessary GSM frequencies necessary for LTE on other carriers.  You want LTE with the Icon, it's Verizon or nada.

[SickFreak]

And that's one thing I like about Europe - the phones aren't locked into a single carrier.  You do business with a carrier based on their service, not their available phones.  Could anyone imaging us picking our ISP based on the computers we're allowed to connect with?

If the carriers continue to do different communication frequencies and protocols, the phones need to be changed so we can just add a chip to connect to whichever provider we use.  If we want to change providers, we just yank out the old chip and replace it with a chip for our new service provider.

[#22]

It's not that simple as replacing a chip. It will take time, but eventually you will have interoperability once everyone moves to LTE fully. Were talking probably at least 6-8 years away though. Maybe ten.