According to unofficial rumours and leaks, Nokia will be releasing a high end Lumia 928 for Verizon customers. The Lumia 928 announcement, which is expected to be unveiled by next month by Verizon, will have the New Jersey based network provider selling a high end Lumia device for the first time. The device has (from leaks) a metal body, a 4.5-inch touch screen, an 8 MP camera and will feature wireless charging. Similar to all other Lumia smartphones, this device will also run on Microsoft’s Windows Phone 8.
Nokia has thus far only the decidedly mid-range Lumia 822 (an 820 variant) on Verizon’s network. With a subscriber base in excess of 100 million, a high-end exclusive Lumia device will help the manufacture regain some of the sheen that has worn off since the launch of the Lumia 920, which didn’t come to Verizon. On the other hand, AT&T, the main rival for Verizon already offers the Lumia 920 for $99.99 with a 2-year plan. The decision to get hold of the country’s largest network provider is a result of the drop in Nokia handset sales by 33 percent (to 400,000 devices) in the US in the first quarter. Globally, Nokia Lumia sales rose to 5.6 million units from 4.4 million in the fourth quarter as Nokia launched low and mid-range handsets like th Lumia 520, 620 and 720. The company has predicted that at least 7.11 million Lumia devices would be sold this quarter as more models are introduced around the world.
Despite the positive response for the Lumia series, Apple and Samsung hold the market with both together claiming 90 percent of the market. The last quarter saw Apple and Samsung combined selling 100 million smartphones. Nokia Chief Executive Officer Stephen Elop, who was earlier with Microsoft, abandoned Nokia’s Symbian OS for the Windows Phone OS. In his third year as the CEO, Elop still has high hopes of the OS helping the company revive from its disastrous fall since its peak in 2001. At the centre of the strategy are the new Lumia 52, 620 and 720, which are expected to drive mid-range growth. However, for Nokia to truly make a solid recovery, it needs to capture attention in the US market, where devices like the Lumia 928 will hopefully allow the manufacturer make a dent in the high end market.
