Nokia unveils first Windows Phone devices

Partnership with Microsoft bears fruit but will it be enough to tempt users from Apple and Android?

Phone giant Nokia today launched its first Windows Phone device at its Nokia World Conference in London.

The flagship device is the Lumia 800, fitted with a quality 9-megapixel camera with a Carl Zeiss lens - the first time for a Windows Phone.

It is a 3.7" touch screen device and weighs 142g with dimensions of 116.5 x 61.2 x 12.1mm.

The phone has standard 802.11 wireless connectivity, and uses high speed datalink packet access (HSDPA) for mobile broadband, theoretically capable of 14.4Mbit/s download speeds, but likely to be around 2Mbit/s in normal use.

The processor is a Qualcomm MSM8255 model running at 1.4GHz with 512MB of system memory with total onboard storage of 16GB.

However there is no slot for micro-SD storage cards. The Lumia 800 has a 1.45Ah battery that Nokia are claiming gives a maximum of 9.5 hours of talk time.

Nokia will also expect its navigation application Nokia Drive and its Nokia Music services will attract customers.

Ovum analyst Nick Dillion commented: "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 deliver the devices in an increasingly competitive market."

Nokia formed a strategic partnership with Microsoft in April, while ex-Microsoft executive Stephen Elop became Nokia's chief executive back in September 2010.

Microsoft updated its Windows Phone operating system in September with the launch of version 7.5, codenamed ‘Mango', which gives users the ability to access SkyDrive for online storage (25GB) and also connect natively to Microsoft's cloud-based Office 365 productivity suite.

"This launch is essentially a restart for Nokia, which has struggled to adjust to the new dynamics of the smartphone market following the launch of the iPhone in 2007."

Analyst firm Gartner has predicted that Windows Phone sales will overtake iPhone sales by 2015, but Dillion said the challenges facing Nokia are significant.

"People have invested in Android and Apple platforms from a services, financial (via applications) and a familiarity perspective, so 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?'" added Dillon.