Microsoft Announces New 650 Smartphone, As Life After Lumia Brings Huge Growth In Revenues For Nokia
The new Lumia 650 smartphone has been unveiled with a price point of around $199 in the U.S. and between £150 and £160 in the UK.
The Lumia 650 is aimed at the business market and runs the latest Microsoft Office apps straight out of the box, allowing users to streamline workflows and maximize mobile productivity with their Windows-based user IT environments. The projects can be created and edited on-the-go and then synchronized to the cloud through OneDrive.
The phone supports the growing roster of Universal Windows Applications, “code-once” software that works across a variety of Windows 10 devices, from tablets and PCs to smartphones.
The Lumia 650 has also been designed with business security in mind, protecting company and personal data with features such as device encryption and device wipe.
Although not in the premium price bracket, the Lumia 650 features hardware and design that are often found in high-end devices like Samsung’s popular Galaxy smartphones and the iPhone. It boasts a five-inch Gorilla Glass 3 OLED screen, and an exposed metal chassis — a polished, diamond cut anodized aluminum frame.
The smartphone also has a removable battery, expandable storage, a profile of 6.9mm, weighs 122 grams, a 5-megapixel front camera, and an 8-megapixel rear camera. It runs a Qual-com snapdragon Quad-core 1.3 GHz Processor, has 1GB RAM, 16GB storage, and LTE support. The Lumia will be available in two finishes — black and white.
The Lumia 650 is the second Lumia smartphone released without Nokia branding, after the Finnish company that originally developed the Lumia range sold the mobile phones division to Microsoft for $7.2 billion.
Nokia now consists of two business operations that focus on mapping and network infrastructure — Nokia Networks and Nokia Technologies.
The former is a multinational data networking company and one of the world’s largest telecoms equipment manufacturers. With a presence in 120 countries, Nokia Networks is driving a convergence of diverse technologies, such as Cloud services, Analytics, Fastmile, and VoLTE, to optimize network performance.
The latter develops and licenses innovations and the Nokia brand. Nokia Technologies consists of an advanced development team working in areas such as imaging, sensing, wireless connectivity, power management, and advanced materials.
Last week, Nokia posted its quarterly earnings data — revenue of $3.61 billion for the quarter, which is up 2.8 percent on a year-over-year basis.
Net sales for Nokia increased 3 percent on a reported basis, driven by a staggering 170 percent growth in Nokia Technologies’ revenues. While the Networks segment operating margins came in at 14.6 percent, the best performance since Nokia Siemens Networks was established.
Nokia CEO Rajeev Suri said that the company expects growth this year in markets such as North America, India, the Middle East, and Africa, but demand in China is expected to diminish.
But during Q4, Nokia saw 17 percent y-o-y growth in its revenues from China, and the company believes that any drop in demand can be offset by Nokia’s merger with Alcatel-Lucent.
The merger is in its final stages, as Nokia recently announced that it holds 91 percent of Alcatel-Lucent’s shares following the second round of its EUR 15.6 billion all-stock offer.
The deal is proceeding faster than expected, and Nokia is proactively stirring up the leadership structure of Alcatel Shanghai Bell, putting in a new management team and board of directors.
Alcatel-Lucent reported 13 percent growth in its Q4 revenues with promising results from Asia and North America, which indicates that it is in a good shape and can help Nokia in China as well as the U.S.
[Image via YouTube]
