Nokia is making its way back into the smartphone market. The worlds no 1 mobile phone maker has failed to capture a market-share in the smartphone era triggered by the Apple iPhone and embarrassingly it ends up being on the wrong end whenever smartphone marketshare or profits is compared. Add to that the fact that the US market isn’t Nokia’s strong point, the Windows Phone 7 (Microsoft) tie-up for the Lumia series however should help Nokia. Also the American CEO, Stephen Elop.
Nokia has the Lumia 800 out in a few markets and Espoo is promoting it aggressively across the globe. With US release of Lumia 710 which is the lower end version of the Lumia series, Nokia is surely planning big releases with AT&T & Verizon (710 went to T-Mobile). We have played with the Lumia for a fair bit of time and Windows Phone Mango sure is refreshing, however the duo isn’t enough to challenge the dominant Android smartphones and the Apple iPhone 4S yet. However Nokia might well have a plan to upset that equation.
Rumors are that Nokia is preparing a LTE Lumia 800 for US launch. This might well be announced at CES 2012 and that would be a game changer as the iPhone isn’t supporting LTE yet. The market for LTE might not be huge yet, but it sure would add a differentiator for Nokia when compared to Apple. We have confirmed from our sources that Nokia would get as many as 8 Windows Phone devices next year and the WP7 Tango release in January would help Nokia’s offering (may be support LTE as well?). We would wait to see the reception 710 and 800 get before betting on Nokia’s future!