Nokia CEO Stephen Elop has vowed to deliver cheap Windows Phone devices, in a bid to "compete with Android aggressively", the Verge reports.
Elop's stern words come in the wake of bad news for Nokia, with the Finnish company selling off its Vertu luxury smart phone brand and cutting 10,000 jobs.
Speaking on a conference call, Elop pledged that Nokia would forge Windows Phone mobiles even cheaper than the wallet-friendly Lumia 610 (which costs about £180 SIM-free), admitting that the fight over the low-end market is "an important part" of Nokia's battle against Android.
Elop said Nokia already had plans to go cheaper than the 610, and the company had figured out "ways to go even further than we anticipated".
It's a fact that when it comes to mid-range and budget blowers, Google's mobile operating system is cleaning up. Excellent value mobiles like the Huawei Ascend G300 or the T-Mobile Vivacity offer robot-powered touchscreen fun for about £100 apiece.
The low end might seem like a natural fit for Windows Phone, where shoppers may be less fussed about things like app selection and processing power, and could be swayed by a slick, colourful interface. Nokia has form in this area too, having spent years churning out affordable phones.
But problems have been known to arise when Windows Phone goes budget. The Lumia 610 can't install apps like Angry Birds and Skype (which is owned by Microsoft), because it doesn't have enough memory.
Admittedly Android sometimes suffers from similar problems, but for an operating system as slick and new as Windows Phone, that kind of fragmentation is a worrying sign.
Elop's vow to create cheap phones is in contrast to another struggling manufacturer. HTC chief Peter Chou recently insisted that the company won't be making affordable mobiles, because it doesn't want to harm its brand image.
Would you buy a cheap Lumia? Or should Nokia's Windows Phone efforts be the preserve of railroad tycoons and wealthy astronauts? Let me know in the comments or on our Facebook wall.
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Comments 7
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srsk03 14 June, 2012 19:37
LOL LOL y u so jealous of Android Nokia??
Should have chosen Android ey!!
windows phone is **** anyways
the phone shown above looks like HTC fones stop copyong HTC now!
damien2501 15 June, 2012 07:35
Very mature analytical comments srsk03. Anyway, i think windows phone is perfectly suited to a cheaper handset bearing in mind it needs hardly any spec to run blazingly fast. Also competing against android should be easier at this level as the lack of apps on windows isnt such a problem, most cheaper android phones cant run every app in the store anyway, and have to run an outdated version.
Ken Ling 15 June, 2012 08:16
i like this shape..
ecbuying 15 June, 2012 08:23
yes the shape are good. i also like it.
Mark Anderson 15 June, 2012 12:19
@srsk03
I sincerely hope that English isn't your first language. Brr!
Anyway, the point is that whilst expensive Android phones, with the ridiculously overpowered hardware required to make them work, are pretty good. Cheap Android phones are awful and run like a kneecapped tortoise. I own a ZTE Blade and, trust me, it's Ok until you use something that actually has a fluid UI. Then it's just horrible.
anonymous 16 June, 2012 11:52
I suggest those that think Android needs high spec to run well try a nexus device. The problem is NOT the OS, it is the skins put on by manufacturers. I have a Samsung Galaxy S right now and I've used a Nexus S, same hardware more or less but the performance is like night and day, and that's with one using Gingerbread and the Nexus S using ICS. The Nexus has never lagged, never crashed, never frozen. The Galaxy S though? Daily crashes, constant lag.
I am very, very unlikely to buy anything non Nexus in the future. I would sooner switch to Windows or iOS.
I suppose the advantage of Android is the amount of choice you have in custom ROMs, but then you have the warranty issue and the dangers involved in that route. If certain ROMs were verified reliable and safe by Google then that would change things, I could take losing my warranty but I would always worry about reliability and security with anything third party.
Anyway, back on topic.
It's a good idea for Nokia to release a wide range of handsets for all budgets. But what annoys me is how ugly the 710, the phone that fits into most peoples' budget, is. It looks completely out of place in the current Lumia line up which feature 3 other stunning phones.
I'm very, very tempted to switch to Windows Phone at the moment, but I'm not keen on leaving the Google ecosystem. Gmail is superb and I don't want to use hotmail or similar as my main email account, and the most important thing for a mobile phone OS is for it to have unparalleled search and direction capabilities. Android right now is the best mobile OS IMO because of Gmail, Google Maps (which includes Local and Navigation), in addition to the screen size. So I'll stick with Android, but only Nexus devices, or any other device that runs unskinned Android as standard.
anonymous 16 June, 2012 12:38
So Nokia can make cheap W8 phones that work well. Why then, does the Lumia 900 cost so much, particularly as it's only got16gbof unexpandable storage, a below average camera (for a flagship model) and non-removable battery? Is the extra cost all in the case and screen, or am I missing something?