Nokia: Cheap Windows Phones to Reach Market “Very Quickly”
Nokia has promised low-cost Windows Phone 7 smartphones "very quickly", addressing concerns that the Microsoft OS would drive up prices of the Finnish company's smartphone range. Nokia CEO Stephen Elop confirmed that "we have become convinced that we can do that very quickly" having revealed that one of Microsoft's key messages throughout negotiations was that Windows Phone could readily hit "a very low price point." Only thing is what is "Very low Cost"?
The initial response to Nokia’s decision to drop Symbian and adopt Microsoft Windows Phone has been mixed. The Finnish company’s stock dropped more than 20% and many Finnish employees unhappy with the decision took a voluntary day off when the deal was announced earlier this month.
Mobile World Congress 2011 this past week proved something of a flop for Windows Phone, with the new Android devices dominating the line-ups of most manufacturers. Nokia itself has said that the first smartphones running the platform aren't expected until later in the year, and SlashGear is hearing that carriers are responding negatively to increasing pressure from Microsoft to promote devices.
One of the current issues is pricing, with Microsoft's stringent minimum specifications and inflexibility on modifications leading to an expensive range of functionally very similar headsets. Broader support for chipsets other than Qualcomm's will be one important step in that process, earlier this week, ST-Ericsson confirmed it was focusing strong on the Windows Phone platform.
So PPCGeeks, what do you think of lower costing smartphones by Nokia? What about Nokia in general? Is this move smart for both Microsoft and Nokia - that is to leverage on each other strengths? Let me know below in the comment section, who knows maybe a Microsoft Rep will stumble across this post and make wind of our feelings.
Source: SlashGear.com
© 2011, JasonFieldz. All rights reserved.
Aside from being excited about WP7…
I think that the move with NOKIA being able to bring out a “quality” phone at a “very low price point” is great!!! This will only force other manufacturers into competition-mode which will hopefully give us all more affordable handsets.
I know you dont want to believe it but it is true… Think about it, when I bought my Touch Pro… I payed $300 w/2yr contract… the TP2 for $250 w/2yr contract… My Wifes EVO for $200 with contract and her EVO shift for $150… Does anyone see a patern? Phone prizes are getting lower because the competition is getting fierce… AND WE ARE ALL BENEFITING FROM IT!!! YAY!
Even if Microsoft becomes known for the low-cost baseline user experience for smartphones and more technical users choose Android, I still think it’s a win for Microsoft, and if the two platforms cuts into Apple more and more, I say go for it! It will be a win-win for consumers.
The target audience of WinP7 has always been the low end low tech users who have stayed away from buying a smart phone because it was too complicated for non-tech minded people to operate. They don’t buy or install apps hell many do not even sync their phone to their computer!
That audience at this point is still largely using flip phones. Unfortunatly for MS those users also don’t usually rely on getting email or TXT to their phone nor do they really want or need web browsing and video on their phones either.
Even if MS manages to capture all of that market, it doesn’t bode well for the future because those people are also the same folks who don’t go out and upgrade their phone every year nor do they buy lots of apps which will mean a severe lack of development support.
All that adds up to a very limited lifetime. Now that Pads are the hot tech items to have, and units running android seem to be the most available it is merely a matter of time before those who get pads will want to have their phone operate using the same OS that their pad runs on.
And if MS isn’t careful there could come a time when those pads become powerful enough to be full desktop replacements which would start to eat into their desktop OS revenue as well.
At this point WinP7 is not much more than a GRANNY phone. Nice BIG tiles you can easily see and press, Not a lot of screens to navigate and can be used as a cellular version of life alert where you can possibly video conference with grandma via the front facing camera.
As for marketshare I doubt it goes any higher than the current flip phone marketshare!
well once again thats your opinion