London – Nokia has
begun rolling out its first two Windows smartphones in foreign markets and will
bring a portfolio of Windows phones to the U.S. early next year, president/CEO
Stephen Elop said at this morning’s annual Nokia World event.
The first two
phones, the premium Lumia 800 and more affordable Lumia 710, use 14.4Mbps W-CDMA/HSPA+
cellular technology, but Elop said Nokia will add CDMA and LTE versions of
Windows phones “to address specific local market requirements.”
The
much-anticipated introduction is the first tangible result of a strategy
announced eight months ago to switch the company’s smartphone focus to the
Windows OS from Nokia’s Symbian OS.
In the U.S., the
launch will be accompanied by Nokia’s largest marketing campaign in years, a
spokesman told TWICE.
In a separate
announcement, the company said it entered into a long-term partnership with
Monster to develop audio accessories for Lumia phones. The first accessories
are two stereo headsets, said to be to co-designed and co-developed by both
companies.
Of the two phones
unveiled at today’s event, the premium Lumia 800 is more likely to end up in
the U.S. because it operates in HSPA+ mode in the U.S. 850/1900MHz bands as
well as in foreign 900/2100MHz bands. The 710, in contrast, operates in HSPA+
mode only in overseas 900/1900/2100MHz bands.
Though the phones use
the standardized Windows Phone 7.5 (Mango) OS, Nokia said it is differentiating
its Windows phones from other Windows phones, in part by through design and
craftsmanship and also by the inclusion of three free apps and services. They
include the Nokia Drive turn-by-turn navigation app, which turns the phone into
a portable navigation device whose maps and the routing algorithm reside in the
phone. A second free app is MixRadio, Nokia’s free global mobile
music-streaming application offering hundreds of music channels as well as
off-line listening. That service will be expanded later this year to create
personalized channels from a global catalog of millions of tracks. A third free
app with service is the ESPN Hub, letting users access sports news, statistics
and videos.
In other
differentiating features, the Lumia 800 features a Carl Zeiss camera lens, curved
AMOLED display, and unibody polycarbonate shell. It will retail for about 420 euros
($586), excluding taxes and carrier subsidies. The Lumia 710 will be priced at
270 euros ($377).
Both models
feature a 3.7-inch 800×480 WVGA capacitive touchscreen,
with hardware acceleration and graphics
processor, Internet Explorer 9, HTML 5, 720p video capture, and multiple camera
features such as LED flash, continuous autofocus and face detection. Both lack
memory-card slots.
Like other Mango
smartphones, both models come with and free 25GB of Microsoft’s Skydrive Cloud
storage to store photos, music and documents, a spokesman told TWICE.
Neither model
features memory-card slot or front-facing video camera for video chats.
Both models also
feature FM radio, stereo Bluetooth, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby Headphone, FM
tuner, voice activation, Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n, and a variety of location
technologies, including Cell ID, Wi-Fi location, GPS and assisted GPS.
Lumia 700 also
includes 8GB of embedded memory, 5-megapixel camera with f2.4 aperture, and
replaceable back covers, which the Lumia 800 lacks because of its unibody
construction.
For its part,
compared to the 710, the Lumia 800 adds such features as an 8-megapixel camera
with a Carl Zeiss lens and f2.2 aperture, curved-glass AMOLED display, and 16GB
of embedded memory. It weighs slightly more, at 142 grams, compared with the
710’s 126 grams, but it’s slightly smaller, at 116.5mm by 61.2mm by 12.1mm. The
710 is 119mm by 62.4mm by 12.5mm.
To launch the
devices in overseas markets, the company developed a marketing campaign with
the “Amazing Everyday” message in a 30-second TV commercial and a 60-second
movie-theater commercial. The company also developed point-of-sale furniture
with a tile theme to mimic the Windows Phone 7.5 user interface. Guerilla
marketing tactics are also planned.
U.S. marketing specifics
weren’t disclosed.
