At the Nokia World 2012 event held a few days ago, Nokia revealed everything about the new Lumia handsets except their launch dates and prices. Rumours indicated earlier that Nokia would launch the Lumia 920 in global markets by November. As per a recent report, this handset will be priced at Euro 600 ($758), which translates to approximately Rs 42,000.
The author of WMPowerUser, Surur states, “The Nokia Lumia 920 will be released in Germany in mid-October and will retail for 600 Euro ($758, £476). The Austrian art magazine ‘Future Zone‘ reported that Nokia wants to deliver the Lumia 920 from the middle of October in Germany. They expect the handset to initially launch only in a few countries, much like the roll-out of the Nokia Lumia 800, before being available everywhere. The handset will be introduced first in Germany, France, Britain, Italy and Russia, before becomes available in late October in Poland. The Scandinavian countries, Portugal and Spain will receive the handset a short time later.”
The report adds that two weeks later, the Lumia 820, Nokia’s second Windows Phone 8 smartphone will be launched at a price of around Euro 450 ($568 or £357). This pricing would translate to roughly Rs 31,500 in India.
This report would also push forward the time frame the handsets are expected to debut. If Nokia aims to reclaim its throne as a top mobile manufacturer, then it needs to get the timing of the handset’s launch right as Apple may probably launch the iPhone 5 in the second half of September.
The launch of the iPhone 5 is likely to create a major stir in the smartphone market as analysts are predicting the brand to sell 10 million units of the device within the first 10 days of its launch itself.
In an investors' note released recently, analyst Gene Munster projects iPhone 5 sales of anywhere between 6 million and 10 million from September 21 to the end of the month. Last year, Apple sold 4 million iPhone 4S units during the phone's first three-day weekend in October. Sales of 10 million units in one week or so seem attainable this year, as long as supply meets demand. Overall, the analyst is eyeing total iPhone sales of at least 26 million units for the full September quarter, higher than the average Wall Street estimate of 22 million to 23 million.
Past rumours indicated that Nokia would price the Lumia 920 to match the iPhone. It will be interesting to see how Nokia fares in the market especially since it has a lot backing on the Windows Phone 8 OS.
Apart from Apple, Nokia also faces competition from the likes of Samsung, which also has a Windows Phone 8, the ATIV S, in its artillery, which will go head to head with these handsets.
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