Nokia had put a lot of its hopes and dreams into the new Lumia 800. The company, once undisputed kings of the mobile phone industry, have been having a hard time for the last few years. Since the launch of the first iPhone back in 2007, the industry has changed dramatically and consumer demand has shifted with it, and Nokia has not managed to adapt as well as some other companies like Samsung and HTC.
The decision made earlier in the year to partner with Microsoft and exclusively produce Windows Phones was a big gamble, and its first Windows Phone, the Lumia 800, was bound to set the tone for all future Nokia Windows Phones. As Nokia and Microsoft have signed their deal for the next few years, it is important that it gets off to a good start, and Nokia decided to push the boat out and spend more money marketing the Lumia than it has done for any phone it has previously produced.
While Nokia claim that the first week of sales for the Lumia have been the best for any new phone they have released, there are also reports that Nokia have cut their expected sales figures for the new phone by more than half. Nokia had expected to sell 2 million by the end of the year, but now expects to sell less than a million – making this a slower phone launch than the Nokia N8 Symbian phone.
Part of the problem may be that, while the Lumia has entered into the public consciousness through a large dose of television advertising, the phone has been experiencing severe battery issues much like the new iPhone 4S. But while Apple were at least quick to appear to try and solve the problem, Nokia have stated they will not be launching a software patch to fix the issue until well into 2012.
Not only is this highly annoying for people who have already purchased the Lumia and are having to charge their new phone several times a day, but it is also going to be quite off-putting for people had been considering the Lumia as their next phone. If Nokia really have so much riding on this phone it would be in their best interests to get these battery issues sorted out as quickly as possible – certainly before the mad shopping rush that will take place in the week leading up to Christmas, when many people will consider a smartphone contract with free gift as an ideal way to get two Christmas presents in one.
The battery problems have blighted an otherwise excellent product from Nokia, which is certainly their best smartphone to be released in recent years. It adopts the same design as the earlier N9, which was a hugely popular phone, although it comes with a much more intuitive and feature rich operating system in the form of Windows Phone – the most socially oriented phone OS on offer, that comes with great entertainment features through Zune and Xbox LIVE.
Here is hoping that Nokia get this issue sorted soon, as the Lumia is perhaps the biggest reason for people to consider purchasing Windows Phone deals right now, with HTC and Samsung not having produced Windows Phone handsets for quite some time.
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