Nokia Lumia Smartphones and the race to stay Relevant

Nokia has finally come up strong, but it still has many catch up to do. The Finnish mobile manufacturer made a strong statement October 26 by unveiling two spanky-new Smartphones. One of the mobile devices is for customers transiting from featured phones to Smartphones (especially in the developing world) and the other is a high-end phone for folks who are willing to spend that money with wild abandon.

Both Nokia Lumia 800 and Lumia 710 run on Windows Phone 7.5 ‘Mango’.  Little wonder Microsoft wants Nokia to succeed. To put short, the phones are design to give the iPhone 4s and galaxy SII a good fight.

Peering through what makes the two Nokia Smartphones rock are some familiar specs similar to what Apple and Samsung have to offer.

For example, with Lumia 800 we are looking at 8 MP camera capable of 720p videos and a 1.4 GHz Snapdragon processor. It also has a big screen to boot (3.7-inch display). The Lumia 710, being a cheaper phone, has some played down specifications: 5MP camera, however, the display and processor are the same as Lumia 800.

A look at the design calls to mind one thing— Lumia 800 looks like the iPod Nano! Therefore, there is nothing innovative about the design. In addition, introducing Smartphones without front-cameras clearly fault the design and market considerations that went into making the products.

Although Nokia still controls a huge chunk of the global mobile phone market, the company is being outperformed, up and down, and almost isolated to the shrinking featured phone market. That’s what Nokia wants to change.

High-end smartphone market is the way to go for Nokia and about time too. For failing to innovate early enough meant the company would have to work extra hard to convince customers especially in the developing world that Blackberry Smartphones, the iPhone 4S, and Samsung Galaxy S II are no match to Nokia Smartphones.

Both handsets will be available in the U.S alongside a host of other devices, which are in the pipeline, in the first quarter of 2012. Zdnet reported spotting some Verizon representative at the launch of the Nokia Lumia models.

Lumia 800 is now available in the United Kingdom, Italy, Germany, Netherlands, Spain, and France. The handsets would be available in Singapore, Russia, India, Taiwan, and Hong Kong before the end of the year.

About software, there is a truckload of super-duper applications designed by Nokia. A few examples are the Drive voice-activated turn-by-turn directions, the Nokia Music, and Mix Radio services and so on. Try as hard as you could, there is nothing close to the iPhone Siri.

Is the Nokia Lumia 800 a formidable warrior to challenge the iPhone 4S and Galaxy S II? Well, only time will tell. So far, it is a bit of a deal breaker for me. For one, it does not have a front-mirror. Second, not even a MicroSDHC. Third, the storage is a miniature 16GB compared to iPhone 4s 64GB storage.