After the legendary Symbian and the struggling Microsoft (MSFT, Financial) Windows Phone, Nokia (NOK, Financial) finally decided to come out with Google (GOOG, Financial) Android powered handsets and thus came into existence the Nokia X – soon to be joined by Nokia X+ and Nokia XL. Though many don’t consider Nokia X to be a true Android smartphone because of its several restrictions, Nokia seems to be pretty excited about the gadget. This Monday will be another interesting day at Nokia as the company releases the new device to the Chinese consumers.
The Chinese smartphone market
China is the hot market for all phone makers at the moment. The country accounts for almost 40% of the worldwide smartphone market and Samsung (SSNLF, Financial) being the current leader with more than 20% market share. Apart from the Korean phone maker, Apple (AAPL, Financial) and China’s very own Lenovo (LNVGY, Financial), Huawei, Yulong and ZTE are also strong competitors in the geography, while Nokia is not even among the list of top sellers. So, the situation is surely going to be anything but easy for the Finnish phone maker.
What Nokia can look forward to
What can work in Nokia’s favor is the price of the handset. Priced at just $100, Nokia X seems to have some noteworthy upside potential. At the price point, the device will compete against the entry level Chinese-smartphones. The device has already received around seven million registrations, suggesting high consumer anticipation for the device. However, the point to be noted is, the figure doesn’t reflect pre-orders and is just a measure of intent to buy.
The important piece of the puzzle
What makes the handset so important for Nokia is the fact this is the first time that the phone maker has adopted the operating system and its success or failure will decide the company’s future course of action. Till now Nokia had two dedicated smartphone lines – Asha and Lumia. If the Android-Nokia combination works out, may be the company will work towards getting the full-blown Android experience on board and bring out handsets that can compete against those from Samsung, HTC and Sony. Whether Microsoft will like that to happen or not still remain the question. But, judging from the present move, Microsoft might just be ready with the idea of Nokia on Android.
Departing thoughts
Nokia has always made strong robust handsets and had it not been for the choice of outdates OS, the company probably would still have been the ace phone maker. Even the present day handset quality of Nokia is far superior to those provided by some of the smartphone giants. Again, with Nokia X, the company is mainly targeting the budget conscious consumers. To these consumers, the quality of the handset and longevity matters greatly and these are the things that Nokia X is surely going to offer. With this handset Nokia is surely in no position to take on the bigger Android giants, but it’s sure to create some ripples and make its presence felt. For the rest, let’s wait till Monday and see how things turn out for this great phone maker.
