O2 denies Nokia WinPho handset cull

O2 today insisted it has not dropped Nokia's Lumia 800. The Windows Phone 7 handset is simply "out of stock", according to the network operator.

Temporary unavailability is usually accompanied by a note to that fact, but O2's website does not list the phone at all.

A search for the handset yields an appropriate entry at shop.o2.co.uk/mobile_phone/Nokia/Lumia_800 and Google has www.o2.co.uk/nokia_lumia_800 but clicking on either link instead calls up a page which says: "The phone you selected does not exist on the O2 shop."

Update Now these links just generate '404' errors. Thanks for the tip, Jai.

Cock-up or conspiracy? The former, if an O2 spokesman is to be believed. The handsets is not available now, but will be shortly, he said. The absent page? "We'll have to talk to our web people about that."

O2 did not offer the 800 when the handset launched last month, but early in December said the smartphone would go on sale on 9 December, announcing the move on its Facebook page.

The Lumia 800 launch has not gone smoothly. Nokia was subsequently forced to announce not one but two key software updates to fix battery drain issues reported by early adopters. ®