Nokia has partnered with China Mobile, China’s largest operator, to sell it’s new Lumia 920T – one of the phones that the company sees as a key player in its revival story. China has recently overtaken the U.S., India and many countries in Western Europe, emerging as a leading smartphone market in the world. With the Chinese New Year coming up, many smartphone companies like HTC, Motorola and Samsung are gearing up to feature their best products and increase revenues.
The Nokia Lumia 920 is available for a reduced sale price now starting at $49.99.
The Chinese New Year, which falls on Feb 10th this year, calls for a weeklong holiday where people shop for themselves and others extensively. It can be likened to the week of Christmas in the U.S. In preparation for this season, China Mobile released a widespread ad campaign titled “Change Phones for he New Year!” Among other phones, this campaign features the Nokia Lumia 920T. However, come Feb 10th, a lot of people that see this ad and walk into stores are going to leave disappointed as Nokia’s supplies have fallen significantly shorter than the promised quantity. Due to delivery shortages, only 30,000 920T devices were shipped by Jan 30, as compared with the 90,000 ordered.
Neil Mawston, an analyst at Strategy Analytics in London, stressed on the importance of China as a hot market right now. Mawston was quoted saying that if Nokia fails in China this holiday season, its worldwide recovery strategy could be severely affected. Just two years ago, Nokia’s Symbian devices dominated 50 percent of China’s market share, but then a switch to Windows Phone OS and an inclination towards Western markets led their consumers to Apple, Samsung and some local brands. China Mobile spokesperson Li Yan blamed low production and inefficiencies in meeting deadlines for this situation.
The Finnish tech giant has overtly admitted that there were supply issues and has been working for the last few months to remedy the situation. Timo Ihamuotila, Nokia’s chief financial officer, reportedly claimed that the company is increasing production capacity, so it would soon be able to move past this phase of problems. Company CEO Stephen Elop, who was brought in from Microsoft three years ago, asserts that Nokia is in a mode where it is developing a whole new product portfolio. The Lumia 920, which retails with China Unicom, and the 920T are byproducts of this new mode. Several other Nokia phones will land in China soon.
You can purchase the Lumia 920 at a discounted price tag now starting at $49.99.
