At a conference in London today, Nokia showed off a Windows-based phone with a 3.7-inch touch screen and 16 gigabites of memory called the Lumia 800. Pricetag: $585.
Looking an awful lot like an iPhone, the Nokia (NOK) device and the slightly cheaper Lumia 710 with 8GB of memory each have a 1.4 gigahertz processor. These won’t be available in the U.S. until 2012, according to Wells Fargo Securites‘ senior analyst Jennifer M. Fritzche.
Having lost share to the Apple (AAPL) iPhone, as well as the Google (GOOG) Android device, Nokia hopes a new generation of smartphone with Windows software can win back market share.
“Worryingly uncompetitive,” observes Pierre Ferragu, a London-based senior analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein. “[Nokia] is unlikely to see a meaningful change in trends as it launches these products.”
Nokia shares are trading near $6.66, down about 5 cents, or 0.6%, today.
Ferragu adds:
“If the Lumia 800 appears like a well rounded phone with a nice and fairly distinctive design (similar to the N9), I see the launch price point as a deal breaker. I don�t think Nokia can regain anything in the $580 price band, in which Android and iOS probably have over 95% market share. This phone [is] condemned to be either anecdotic or go through massive price cuts in the next 6 months.
The Lumia 710 (that we experienced today as well) clearly comes across as �cheap build� … in its bulky plastic form. At $375, the phone doesn�t appear fit to compete against Android phones … and is much closer to $100-$150 phones from Huawei and ZTE that are ramping up.”
Analysts haven’t touched their Nokia ratings for months, but today Northland Securities initiated Nokia coverage at Outperform and a $10 price target.
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