Has any one tried it out. I was big fan of Nokia Cell phones. Just Phone part.. I used to love it. There were the best.. In past, they were best phones when it comes to voice quality or working even in poor signal area. I rarely had any call drops on it. As compared to iPhone or even previously, those flashy Sony Ericson or even my Samsung Blackjack (anyone even remembers it :-) ).
I rarely see Nokia phones here in US. They are still very much popular in India and may be rest of the world. In US, due to dominance of Cell Providers, Nokia had almost zero market share. For some reasons, they failed to come up with any agreement with them. May be they were happy with non-US market.
Now with Microsoft alliance, I am guessing they are coming back. Nokia is known to be best in terms of hardware. However, we will have to see how there machines works or marry with crappy Microsoft OS. It will be interesting to watch and track how do they perform. I guess, future and reputation of two once upon a time best companies is at stake. I hope that they will come up with better cell phone and more importantly better overall experience for users and customers. Now a days, more important thing is overall experience and ecosystem around it. All thanks to Apple iPhone, customers are more demanding and levels are set much higher.
I guess, MS and Nokia should also come up with some thing like iPod touch type. With Skype in their bag, they can easily come up with good competitor for non cell phone type of devices to extend product range similar to iPhone, iPod-touch and even iPad. They can freely and aggressively sell and try it out. There is still ample of diet for good tablets. Especially for MS, if they can some how link their tablet to Desktop/Laptop.. May be MS tablet can introspect your desktop and bring applications and media on tablet automatically either on memory or may be thru their cloud. There could be great synergy for them. MS is still defacto leader in desktop area. If they help users migrate and ease pain by keeping data/application/media in sync they still might have some good story and can still successfully get good pie of the market.
AT&T to sell $100 Nokia phone
Rival to iPhone and Android devices will have LTE speed
By Scott Moritz
Bloomberg News
AT&T plans to start selling a Nokia smartphone with Microsoft software for half of what it charges for the iPhone, as the device’s makers seek to break Apple and Google’s dominance of the U.S. market. The Lumia 900, which runs on AT&T’s network using faster, so-called longterm- evolution technology, will start selling for $99.99 on April 8, the second-largest U.S. wireless carrier said Monday in a statement. The latest iPhone and newest handsets running Google’s Android software typically start at $199.
Nokia is counting on Microsoft’s Windows Phone software to reignite sales in the U.S., where the iPhone, Android makers such as Samsung Electronics and Research In Motion’s Black-Berry control 92 percent of the market. Microsoft is trying to increase its share of the mobile software market to expand beyond the slowergrowing personal-computer market.
“The pricing is aggressive,” said Avi Greengart, an analyst at research firm Current Analysis in Teaneck, N.J. “They are hoping to use price to get people to buy a product with an operating system they aren’t familiar with.”
To get the $99.99 price, customers need to sign a twoyear contract with AT&T. The Dallas-based carrier will also sell the phone without a contract for $449.99, said Steven Schwadron, an AT&T spokesman.
Those price points suggest that AT&T is subsidizing each Lumia by about $350. That compares with a $450 subsidy for the cheapest version iPhone 4S, which sells for $199 with a contract and $649 without one.Nokia CEO Stephen Elop, a former Microsoft executive, started rebuilding the Espoo, Finland-based company’s smartphone strategy around the Windows Phone operating system last year. Nokia had previously focused on its own MeeGo and Symbian operating systems.
Nokia and Microsoft have said they are willing to spend money to fuel sales. Microsoft said last year it would pay Nokia $1 billion to develop and promote Windows phones. Elop said in October that marketing spending on the Lumia series would be triple the money spent on previous product sales promotions.
I rarely see Nokia phones here in US. They are still very much popular in India and may be rest of the world. In US, due to dominance of Cell Providers, Nokia had almost zero market share. For some reasons, they failed to come up with any agreement with them. May be they were happy with non-US market.
Now with Microsoft alliance, I am guessing they are coming back. Nokia is known to be best in terms of hardware. However, we will have to see how there machines works or marry with crappy Microsoft OS. It will be interesting to watch and track how do they perform. I guess, future and reputation of two once upon a time best companies is at stake. I hope that they will come up with better cell phone and more importantly better overall experience for users and customers. Now a days, more important thing is overall experience and ecosystem around it. All thanks to Apple iPhone, customers are more demanding and levels are set much higher.
I guess, MS and Nokia should also come up with some thing like iPod touch type. With Skype in their bag, they can easily come up with good competitor for non cell phone type of devices to extend product range similar to iPhone, iPod-touch and even iPad. They can freely and aggressively sell and try it out. There is still ample of diet for good tablets. Especially for MS, if they can some how link their tablet to Desktop/Laptop.. May be MS tablet can introspect your desktop and bring applications and media on tablet automatically either on memory or may be thru their cloud. There could be great synergy for them. MS is still defacto leader in desktop area. If they help users migrate and ease pain by keeping data/application/media in sync they still might have some good story and can still successfully get good pie of the market.
AT&T to sell $100 Nokia phone
Rival to iPhone and Android devices will have LTE speed
By Scott Moritz
Bloomberg News
AT&T plans to start selling a Nokia smartphone with Microsoft software for half of what it charges for the iPhone, as the device’s makers seek to break Apple and Google’s dominance of the U.S. market. The Lumia 900, which runs on AT&T’s network using faster, so-called longterm- evolution technology, will start selling for $99.99 on April 8, the second-largest U.S. wireless carrier said Monday in a statement. The latest iPhone and newest handsets running Google’s Android software typically start at $199.
Nokia is counting on Microsoft’s Windows Phone software to reignite sales in the U.S., where the iPhone, Android makers such as Samsung Electronics and Research In Motion’s Black-Berry control 92 percent of the market. Microsoft is trying to increase its share of the mobile software market to expand beyond the slowergrowing personal-computer market.
“The pricing is aggressive,” said Avi Greengart, an analyst at research firm Current Analysis in Teaneck, N.J. “They are hoping to use price to get people to buy a product with an operating system they aren’t familiar with.”
To get the $99.99 price, customers need to sign a twoyear contract with AT&T. The Dallas-based carrier will also sell the phone without a contract for $449.99, said Steven Schwadron, an AT&T spokesman.
Those price points suggest that AT&T is subsidizing each Lumia by about $350. That compares with a $450 subsidy for the cheapest version iPhone 4S, which sells for $199 with a contract and $649 without one.Nokia CEO Stephen Elop, a former Microsoft executive, started rebuilding the Espoo, Finland-based company’s smartphone strategy around the Windows Phone operating system last year. Nokia had previously focused on its own MeeGo and Symbian operating systems.
Nokia and Microsoft have said they are willing to spend money to fuel sales. Microsoft said last year it would pay Nokia $1 billion to develop and promote Windows phones. Elop said in October that marketing spending on the Lumia series would be triple the money spent on previous product sales promotions.
2 comments:
I did have a chance to look at Nokia Lumia closely at a Microsoft Store. The great thing about this phone, it has crisp and clear display. Nice touch-sensitivity, and displays information in easier-to-read manner.
However it departs from the standard iPhone/Android style iconic screen, which I think gets cluttered over a period of time with different apps.
Should have labelled buttons on side to figure out which one is power. Great effort, but general public seems to be already gravitating toward iPhone or Android.
---Zahid---
Thanks a lot Zahid for sharing your insight. I have very high regards for Nokia and I am sure they will do great job and fix things soon to create good competitor for iPhone. I mayyyyy consider Nokia/Windows phone as my second phone in future... but for now I am really happy with my iPhone.. I have no plans to leave it..
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