No vendor of smartphones can ignore huge Chinese market for success of its products especially struggling Nokia which is established brand in China. To take advantage of its brand-equity in China, Finnish phone maker has announced it will launch its Lumia line of Windows Phones in China next month.
Nokia said its new Lumia 800C is designed to run on China’s CDMA networks and will be supported by China Telecom, one of the country’s three major state-owned carriers. China is the world’s biggest mobile phone market with about 900 million accounts, and is Nokia’s biggest market.
“We’re excited to introduce our first Lumia smartphone, the Nokia 800C, to this important market,” said Stephen Elop, Nokia chief executive, in a statement. “We’ve created a compelling, locally relevant experience on the Nokia 800C especially tailored for people in China.” The Lumia 800C will go on sale in early April for 3,599 yuan ($570), according to Elop. He said Nokia and China Telecom plan to release a lower-priced model, the 610C, aimed at students and other budget users. The Lumia 900c and the 710C sold in other markets would also be brought to China over time.
Once the dominant player of the industry, Nokia has lost its sheen after arrival of iPhones and Android devices. Asian manufacturers are also squeezing it at the low-end. Its market share plummeted to below 30 percent last year from 40 percent in 2008. Nokia is desperate to reclaim its lost ground and have done its best to shake hands with Microsoft for using its Windows operating system on its Lumia devices. But Nokia is not getting the desired results which it had envisaged while launching Lumia range of smartphones.
Hope it will get good response for its Lumia 800C in its most sought after Chinese market and only coming weeks will tell how the Chinese consumers welcome this new device in their country.
