Sunday, August 23, 2015
Microsoft buy, Lumia 1320 and 525 launch could spur Nokia’s market share
The proposed acquisition of Nokia by Microsoft is set to give the former more teeth and has already prompted the Finnish major to announce two Lumia smartphone launches – the 1320 as well as the 525 – in a bid to close the gap with arch rival and leader Samsung along with other major handset makers like Sony, LG and Micromax.
The 1320 would be Nokia’s second phablet with six-inch screen and 720p display. It has been designed on the lines of the Lumia 1520 and the new device would come for around $350 (US market price but it could be different for India).
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| The Nokia Lumia 1320. |
It also comes with a 1.7 Ghz dual-core processor, 1 GB RAM, 5 MP camera and 3,400 mAh battery.
The Lumia 525, which comes for $199, has a four-inch touchscreen, Snapdragon 1 Ghz dual-core processor and 1 GB of RAM.
Nokia India on Friday announced that its two new Lumia devices, the large screen (6-inch) Nokia Lumia 1320 and the Nokia Lumia 525 - a variant of Lumia 520 - will start selling in the country in the first half of January.
The company recently entered the six-inch screen devices or phablet market with the roll out of the Nokia Lumia 1520, priced at Rs 46,000. While the company has not announced prices of the new devices, it said the Lumia 1320 would be priced around half of Lumia 1520.
“The year has been a good one for the Lumia series phones in India. We have launched nine Lumia handsets this year, and after these two new devices are rolled out, I am sure many others would flock for our Lumia smartphones,” Vipul Mehrotra, Middle East and Africa director (smart devices), Nokia India, had said.
With a slew of upgrades as well as by introducing new phones in the budget Asha and high-end Lumia series, Nokia has started offering variety but the Lumia handsets are a shade behind Samsung’s Galaxy phones in performance, which are also judiciously priced.
The handsets would be available in India before Microsoft acquires Nokia, which could be around six months.
The US giant acquired Nokia’s handset unit for about $7 billion. For two years, Nokia and Microsoft were on a tie-up for using Microsoft’s operating system for Nokia’s range of Lumia phones.
So, the roll out of the Lumia 1320 and 525 smartphones may not be enough for Nokia to eat into Samsung’s market substantially for now but Microsoft’s acquisition could bring the Finnish major into the limelight again.
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