Nokia's desperate "Money Back Challenge" hopes to boost Lumia 800 and 710 sales

Nokia India has started a new campaign called the “Amazing Money Back Challenge”, where customers who buy the Lumia 800 or 710 can return it within seven days for a full refund if they aren’t satisfied with it. The campaign is live now on Nokia India’s Facebook page and all you have to do is enter your contact details, select the store closest to you and wait for a call from them. We guess you can even visit the store directly and avail of this offer. The terms and conditions are pretty straightforward: the handset can only be returned if it’s in a very good condition and all the accessories are present in the box.You can only return the phone to the store from where you’ve purchased it, which makes sense. If you do return the device, we think you should expect a call from some Nokia representative about feedback.

This strategy seems like a desperate attempt to move more Lumia handsets off the shelves. The trouble with Windows Phone 7 devices now is that OEMs know they have a limited time frame to sell the most amount of phones they can can before Windows Phone 8 handsets arrive. Microsoft hammered the final nail in the coffin when they said WP7 will not be upgradeable to WP8, and naturally, Nokia is making the most of the short time it has before everyone catches on and stops buying WP7 handsets. 

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Return to sender within 7 days

To help make the Lumia 800 a bit more enticing, Nokia recently launched the Limited Edition Dark Knight Rises Lumia 800 in India along with the budget friendly Lumia 610. The pricing of the Lumia 800 Dark Knight handset is great as those looking to buy it would not need to shell out more for the special edition. However, the standard price of the Lumia 800, also available on Nokia’s online store, is the same. Only 200 units of this handset are available and can only be purchased online.

The Nokia Lumia 800 was first launched in India last year and heralded Nokia’s big re-entry in the smartphone market currently dominated by the likes of iOS and Android. Nokia differentiated themselves from the competition by mainly focusing on the Lumia range of handsets by powering it with the Windows Phone OS. The trouble with Windows Phone 7 now is that everyone knows it’s a dead-end, so if you don’t care about apps and software updates but only want a good touchscreen phone with a slick interface, it’s still a very viable option, especially the Lumia 610 at its low price. For the rest, however, we still have Android to fall back on, and from what we’ve seen in Jelly Bean, Android may have finally reached a point where it could overtake iOS in being the best mobile OS in the market.