Nokia Lumia 920 |
Last week, Nokia announced its partnership with China Mobile to launch a variant of its flagship smartphone, the Lumia 920, specifically for Chinese market. The variant, the Lumia 920T will be the first TD-SCDMA Windows phone in China. With advanced location services, photography innovation, and fast mobile browsing on China Mobile’s 3G network, the Lumia 920T will offer Chinese consumers the most innovative smartphone experience.
According to Stephen Elop, President and CEO of Nokia, “We are delighted to partner with China Mobile, the world’s largest operator, to introduce China’s first Lumia based on Windows Phone 8. People around the world are responding positively to the new Lumia devices, and we’re confident that the enthusiasm will extend to China with the Lumia 920T,”
In response, Li Yue, President of China Mobile Communications Corporation said that “Our close cooperation with Nokia is a key contributor to the success of China’s TD industry, and will further enhance the rapidly growing TD ecosystem. We are excited about this important next step in our partnership, and we look forward to creating an even more vibrant TD industry together,”
The Lumia 920T will be available for order by the end of the year. It will retail at RMB 4599 (about $740) without contract and come in four colours; black, white, yellow and red.
China Mobile is the world’s largest operator with 703 million subscribers and one would expect that Nokia’s tie-up with China Mobile could massively boost its numbers. Nokia lost $754 million in its last quarter, during which it sold just 2.9 million Lumia phones, down 1.1 million sequentially.
Maintaining a strong foothold in China is important. The Chinese market accounts for almost one-third of global smartphone shipments, having overtaken the U.S. this year. More Chinese are also still converting to smartphones. Shipments are expected to grow 36% a year through 2016, forecasts International Data Corp. And China Mobile is a decent partner, with 75.6 million 3G users.