Nokia’s CEO, Stephen Elop kicked off the 2-day event in the UK, Nokia World, with some phenomenal stats about the company.
- 7 Nokia devices now support NFC, making them ‘the leader in NFC’ says Nokia CEO, Stephen Elop.
- Nokia now produce more than 1 million phones per day, 365 million phones per year.
- They are announcing 4 new phones.
- Nokia Asha will be a feature phone for developing markets – They will run Series 40 (that’s lower than Symbian), but hey, now runs Angry Birds.
While acknowledging they haven’t done a great job in recent years, the decision to partner with Microsoft and use Windows Phone 7 is an important change in direction. Elop through out some pretty aggressive statements like “We’re playing to win. No holding back.” Has the good old Nokia returned ?
One of Nokia’s key strategies going forward will be to hit ‘The Next Billion’. Nokia Asha phones, are clearly targeted targeted at emerging markets, one of which they discussed at length – India. As the world approached 7 billion people, India already houses up to 1.2 Billion of them.
Nokia Asha 200 and 303
Nokia Lumia 800
The first Nokia device running Windows Phone 7, available in cyan, black and magenta.
Essentially looks the same as the N9, but runs WP7.5, rather than Meego. Elop says that Nokia want to lead the way in smart phone design. In a statement that is sure to make Microsoft’s other Windows Phone partners really happy, “this is the first real Windows Phone’.
Created from a single-piece injection moulded, polycarbonate shell, it screams perfection and is a beauty on the outside and a beast on the inside. – seriously, you can’t make this stuff up.
‘What you don’t see is a lame grid of icons’ – pretty aggressive poke at Apple.
Nokia made a big point about their camera quality. Traditionally being a strength of Nokia hardware, they say the Lumia 800 is no different. Supporting a F2.2 Carl Zeis lens to allow great pictures to be taken by ordinary people, particularly in low-light situations.
Nokia Drive
This is the first of a few items that will set Nokia devices apart from other WP7 manufacturers. It will come free on the Lumia 800 and will be the only Windows Phone that features full voice guided turn-by-turn navigation.
Nokia Music
Similar to Zune, but from Nokia. The idea is simplification, just pick up your phone, tap a tile and your music starts playing. In reality, it should integrate into the Zune section of WP7, in which case means you have 2 places for music. No word on country availability of this service, but it will be free with the device.
Nokia Lumia 710
The second device from Nokia running WP7, will be more affordable than the 800. Featuring a 3.7” display, the processor and graphics are the same as the 800, but comes in black or white. Nokia will ship a set of covers (backs) to match your WP7 theme and Live Tile colours.
Nokia Public Transport application
Providing location and time information for transport across 450 cities worldwide. There’s a lot of existing applications already trying to address this problem, I’m sure they aren’t happy right now.
Nokia Purity headsets
In a partnership with Monster, Nokia will sell a new range of headsets / ear buds. No word on wether these will be in the Lumia 800 box, or an optional extra, I suspect the later.
Availability
Nokia Asha’s will be available this year, the 201 will be next year.
Nokia Lumia 800 is being packed in Finland right now, unfortunately Australia isn’t in the first two batches of countries receiving the device. Looks like it will be early 2012 for Australian availability.
Watch
You can watch the live stream at http://events.nokia.com/nokiaworld/
More info @ Windows Team Blog.
