Lumia prices to be slashed, says Nokia's Senior VP

Nokia’s Lumia range of handsets is all set to become slightly more affordable according to Nokia’s Senior Vice President D Shivkumar. The Finnish company is going to tweak the price of the Windows-based Lumia to make them affordable to potential consumers in India, Middle East and Africa (IMEA) regions.

The company has a lot riding on the Windows running Lumia devices and is now sparing no quarter in getting customers to switch their smartphone loyalties towards the brand. Shivkumar, in an interview to a newspaper, said that establishment of Lumia has been a big priority for Nokia in the Indian markets.

The honcho for the IMEA region explains that there are two business models – one where the handset is subsidised by service providers and the other where the consumer buys the phone independently. Most countries in the IMEA zone have the latter method of purchasing phones and Nokia is aiming to have a range of value points for it to attract customers of different varieties.

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Price cut coming soon

While admitting that he can not reveal too much about how much the price cut will be, Shivkumar said that Nokia had rolled out eight Lumia devices in just over a year within the price range of Rs. 10,000 to Rs. 38,000 and continues to work closely with Microsoft to bring Lumia devices to newer markets and price points. 

But given the Indian, Middle East and African markets, wouldn’t the Asha series of Nokia phones have more priority over the high-priced, niche Lumia phones? No, says Shivkumar. Nokia does not have the “Asha-or-Lumia” strategy in the IMEA markets but a twin strategy where both move side-by-side despite Asha being the principal revenue driver.

Shivkumar says that Lumia is supposed to be a prime challenger in the top-end smartphone segment and Nokia will come up with more handsets in the Windows phone series across a wider price band. Asha, on the other hand, will be targeted widely and he believes that the Asha Full Touch will be a hit amongst social savvy users. “For Nokia, we have to win in both,” he says.

Currently, the Lumia handsets are priced as:

• Lumia 920: Rs. 35,000
• Lumia 900: Rs. 28,000
• Lumia 820: Rs. 26,000
• Lumia 800: Rs. 18,000
• Lumia 710: Rs. 13,800
• Lumia 610: Rs. 11,300
• Lumia 510: Rs. 9,500

Meanwhile, there is still no sign of the much awaited budget Lumia handset, the Nokia Lumia 620, though rumour has it that it will hit Indian shores in the first week of March after nearly a month’s delay.

After a month of  will-they-won’t-they, and puzzling marketing strategies, signs of Lumia 620’s imminent launch drawing nearer came with a Twitter contest being held on Nokia India’s profile. The competition entails using the #YourWishIsMyApp hashtag and giving opinions on Nokia’s ideas for apps, with the winner getting their hands on a Lumia 620 of their own.

There could be any number of reasons for the delay of the phones, the major one possibly being issues with importing the handsets. Nokia has faced some trouble with the import, and thus the pricing of the handset.