Nokia opts out of holiday Windows 7 phone sales

Nokia has opted out of any significant holiday phone sales.  Most of the Windows Phone 7 handsets on the market are at least a few months old and low to middle of the market.  Unlike Samsung with its high end Galaxy Nexus Android phone or Motorola with its Droid Razr, there aren’t any really dazzling high end Windows Phone 7 handsets hitting the market anytime soon.  The closest is the Samsung Focus S that recently hit AT&T.  The other high end handset, the Nokia 800 isn’t expected in the United States anytime soon.

According to All Things SD, the only Nokia Windows Phone 7 handset that is slated to hit the US is the Lumia 710 on January 11, 2012, just in time for Martin Luther King’s birthday.  Not exactly a time for hot holiday sales.  Most people are still recovering from Christmas excess.  The Lumia 710 is the low end Nokia Windows Phone 7 phone.  The one that really doesn’t wow much of anyone.  It will be offered on T-Mobile for $49.99.  T-Mobile’s current Windows Phone 7 offering is the HTC Radar 4G for $99.99.  Still not very high end.

Windows Phone 7 phones don’t come with duel processors that promise lightening fast speed and multitasking like high end Android phones.  They have fewer apps available and are only offered in one or maybe two flavors per carrier.  AT&T offers the most variety with three, a $.99 cent Samsung Focus Flash, $99 HTC HD7S and the $199 Samsung Focus S.  The HTC HD7S has a 4.3 inch LCD screen.  The Samsung Focus S is the only one with a 4.3 inch super AMOLED plus display.

Verizon has the HTC Trophy for $29.99.  It only has a 3.8 inch display, rear facing camera and has been on the market for months.  Sprint has the HTC Arrive for $99.  It has only a 3.6 inch display and rear facing camera but it does have a slide out QWERTY keyboard.  Neither of these carriers have high end Windows Phone 7 handsets.

T-Mobile’s offering of the Nokia 710 next month will only add a low end Windows 7 offering to its handset selection.  That isn’t a move that will get most gadget people excited about their handsets.  Most high end handsets become obsolete within a few months of purchase.  Low end phones hit the market as obsolete and it only gets worse as your mobile contract drags on.

The December holidays whether it is Christmas, Hanukah, Winter Solstice or Kwanza are when many gadget makers make the bulk of their money.  Thus it seems strange that Nokia wasn’t interested in getting even its low end Lumia into the U.S. market in time for the holidays.

“It’s the right space to launch our first Windows Phone in the U.S.,” Nokia U.S. president Chris Weber said in an interview. “It is the greenfield for us.”

“I think we can take advantage of the fact we are not launching in this noisy period,” Weber said, noting that Nokia will launch the product with a significant amount of advertising — including TV spots — as well as efforts to fully train T-Mobile’s sales force on the benefits of the product and Windows Phone.

Advertising only goes so far then you have to rely on the gadget geeks to talk it up.  Low end handsets don’t inspire much enthusiasm among gadget geeks so when friends and family start asking what is the best phone to buy, you probably aren’t going to hear that it is a Windows Phone 7 handset.  Instead you’re going to be pointed towards an iPhone or one of the Android handsets.  iPhone because it’s well, an Apple product and Android because the choices are numerous as are the available apps.

Maybe Microsoft needs to spend more time hitting the high end rather than playing in the baby pool.  Certainly Nokia should know better, but apparently not.

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