AT&T Device Redux

Dave Ginsburg

On the heels of a pulled BB Bold update (http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2009/09/04/att-pulls-blackberry-bold-software-upgrade/), rumors have it that they’ve now issued a recall on the recently launched Nokia Mural (http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2009/09/10/att-stops-all-sales-of-the-nokia-mural/) due to erroneous 2G vs 3G settings set at the factory. What is interesting is that the internal announcement hints of an available software update. Given that FOTA has proven to be both reliable and scalable at at least one other NA operator, the question is why AT&T doesn’t push an update to the impacted Murals. Is only a cabled update available and has Nokia not provided an OTA package due to the severity of the problem? Or, could FOTA have addressed the issue but the Mural is not FOTA capable? In this day and age, that seems hard to believe, but I’ve not seen evidence that FOTA is active on the handset. Any deeper insights into what could have been an easily prevented embarrassment?