New York – Nokia and T-Mobile will
back the launch of Nokia’s first Windows Phone for the U.S. market with
television and web ads beginning in January.
The $49 Lumia 710 will become
the “hero” phone in the carrier’s winter promotion campaign, Nokia U.S.
president Chris Weber told TWICE during the phone’s launch party last night.
Weber, who is also Nokia’s North
American GM, said the phone will assume a prominent position inside T-Mobile
stores when it becomes available Jan. 11 for use on T-Mobile’s HSPA+ 4G network.
On that day, the phone will also
be available through Walmart, and Nokia is working with other retailers to
place the product in their stores on that day as well, he said.
Both Nokia and T-Mobile will run
Lumia 710 ads in January in a coordinated way to ensure consistent messaging, Weber
added.
As more Nokia Windows Phone
models hit the market next year, the company will ramp up its marketing and
promotion efforts “to reintroduce the Nokia brand to consumers in the U.S” in a
“new, fresh and energized way,” Weber added.
For 2012, he promised a “broad
portfolio in the U.S. at many price points serving multiple user experiences
with multiple carriers.” He also promised a 4G LTE-equipped Windows Phone for
the U.S. market in 2012, but he didn’t say whether the 4G technology would be
paired with 3G CDMA or with 3G W-CDMA for voice and data.
Nokia’s initial effort in
stepping up its U.S. visibility is with a phone targeted to feature phone users
who want to step up, Weber said of the Lumia 710.
In a separate matter, the company
confirmed that the U.S. version of the Lumia 710 will come with two free
globally exclusive apps but not with the company’s MixRadio, Nokia’s free
mobile music-streaming application offering hundreds of music channels as well
as off-line listening. Instead, the U.S. version of the phone will ship with
preloaded Slacker Internet radio.
The two free apps available
globally with the phone are the free Nokia Drive turn-by-turn navigation app
and the ESPN Hub. Nokia Drive turns the phone into a portable navigation device
whose maps and the routing algorithm reside in the phone. ESPN Hub lets users
access sports news, statistics and videos.
