Nokia CEO Stephen Elop has stated that the company intends to take the fight to Android’s low-end portfolio with its Windows Phone-running Lumia family. With the recent release of its new entry-level Windows Phone device, the Lumia 610, the company made full use of the new lowered hardware requirements that came with Windows Phone Tango.
In a recent interview with TechCrunch, alongside Nokia’s CFO Timo Ihamuotila, the two spoke candidly about Microsoft’s assistance, or as Mr Elop put it, “specific support” in giving the company an opportunity to push the minimum hardware requirements of its mobile OS even lower, as a means to aid development of a truly entry-level Windows Phone.
Nokia has identified two key areas where its Lumia lineup (and Windows Phone devices in general) currently struggle; the first is that they cannot compete against the likes of Android across the board, with the Lumia 800 and 900 both marketed as flagship devices, despite nearly identical internal hardware between three of the four Lumias currently available. The second issue is trying to break the stigma which appears to have formed in the minds of retail staff surrounding Windows Phone devices.
“The challenge in all of this is breaking through the strength Android and Apple have in a retail environment’ Elop said. “We aren’t getting the traction we prefer.”
Nokia needs to place a huge amount of trust in retailers and its staff in order to help push Windows Phone as a platform, which for the most part still remains a relatively unknown quantity for the majority of consumers. The company knows that by working more closely with companies like AT&T, which in the US helped carry the Nokia Lumia 900, it will be able to better position the Lumia brand into direct sight of prospective buyers, “adjust” its image and better inform retail staff. Here’s to a host of new Nokias at Nokia World later this year.
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