When it comes to this years Nokia World I have to say that I was expecting more. Although Nokia delivered what was expected of them I would have liked to see them wow the market even more. Don’t get me wrong, I do like both of the new devices but I was secretly hoping for some sort of a big surprise. The Lumia 800 is just as beautiful as the N9 whereas the Lumia 710 continues the more traditional design language familiar from Symbian devices. I think the Lumia 710 actually looks a lot better in person than in pictures and feels really good in your hand. However, it still seems a bit cheap especially when compared to the Lumia 800. Though, build quality is still top notch. I expect both of these devices to sell well. It’s also good to see that Nokia was able to get its new devices to market so quickly and for once on time. Hopefully this marks the end of the delays that Nokia is so famous for.
The new Lumia devices are just the beginning. North American launch will happen in Q1 2012 when we will probably see a new patch of devices, some with LTE. This will be a major marketing push that will be done together with carriers. Microsoft will most likely kick of their new Windows Phone 7 ad campaign around the same time. Things will get especially interesting later in 2012 when we can expect to see new Windows Phone 8 “Apollo” devices. One of the main features of Apollo will be video chat (i.e. Skype), which is probably why the current Lumia devices do not yet have a front facing camera. It will be interesting to see how Microsoft plans to integrate this feature, will they take the safe (read: boring) route or can they come up with something new. Kinect anyone?
Niklas Savander, executive VP of Markets for Nokia, said that “We made the decision to go to Windows Phone when Mango was pretty much done, so we were able to impact some elements of it but you’ll really see the fruits of what we can do with Microsoft when the Apollo version of Windows Phone comes out.” Expect Nokia Apollo flagship device in summer 2012.
Nokia World 2011 was a good start but the big battle won’t take place until next year. 2012 will be a crucial year for Nokia and the Windows Phone ecosystem. Either the platform will take off or it won’t. A year from now we’ll be a lot wiser and know how it all went. See you here in one year.
Leave a Reply