Nokia rides Windows Phone into mobile market insurgence

With today’s launch of its Windows Phone-based Lumia, Nokia is making an attempt at forcing its way back into the smartphone market.

Once upon a time, Nokia relied on the Symbian OS for its phones. But iOS and Android have upped consumer expectations of mobile operating systems, so Nokia has had to look beyond Symbian to compete in the mobile market.

“Having replaced its own Symbian platform with Microsoft’s, this is essentially a restart for the handset manufacturer, which has struggled to adjust to the new dynamics of the smartphone market following the launch of the iPhone in 2007,” said Nick Dillon, analyst at Ovum.

According to Dillon, both Nokia and Microsoft have a lot riding on today’s launch.

“With Microsoft's new mobile platform yet to take off and Nokia banking on Windows Phone it as its primary smartphone platform, the success of the devices will be critical to the future of both companies,” Dillon said.

The switch to Windows Phone is something of a gamble for Nokia, since many users are already comfortable with and have sunk cash into iOS or Android.

“They will have invested in the platforms from a service, financial (via applications) and a familiarity perspective, and as such Nokia will have a challenge to convince them to switch to what is a largely unknown, and therefore risky, alternative.

“For consumers, they will need to have a clear and simple answer to the question ‘why should I buy this instead of an iPhone or Android?’” Dillon said.

The answer to this question may be the features Nokia has added on top of Windows Phone: Nokia Maps, which provides free offline navigation; an f2.2 Carl Zeiss camera with touch-to-focus; and Nokia Music.

“While none of these on their own are standout features, they at least provide Nokia with some ammunition for its marketing and sales team to market the devices in an increasingly competitive market,” Dillon said.