Why the Lumia 925 has given Nokia a second chance

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In November last year, Bob Freking wondered if he should give Nokia a second chance with their Windows Phone handsets. While he couldn't make a definitive decision, he was unconvinced at the chances of Nokia. Fast forward six months, and Freking has taken another look at Nokia's position. He thinks that the recent release of the Lumia 925 illustrates Nokia's path back to the top.

That's not to say that the road is easier, or that the Android path would have been easier in the short term (let's not start that debate again), but Freking argues that Nokia's strengths in hardware design and first party software has created the circumstances for the company to aim for the sales it once had with Symbian.

Nokia has a great design department and an amazing camera team. The software too is above average as they have made a good set of apps for Windows Phone – which lacks compared to Android & iOS. They have City Lens, HERE, Cinemagraph and more, and I think it’s very cool. Also, it’s Nokia that’s doing most of the effort by releasing apps such as #2InstaWithLove – which calls out to Instagram to make an app for WP.

Windows Phone still adds a limitation to Nokia though, which is probably why Nokia has no 1080p phones and why the company had to make a separate Smart Camera app for the Lumia 925 to compete with present day smartphones

Nokia Lumia 925

One phrase Freking uses, "Nokia has learned how to Samsung", describes this very well, but I think it misses a subtle point. Nokia has always created value through software, and it was this that helped make Nokia phones popular. Back in the day, when Samsung was selling Symbian powered devices, they were at a disadvantage to Nokia because they did not have access to Nokia's Symbian software and services, most notably in the form of the Nokia Maps Suite and the Ovi Store (Symbian never had a platform-wide app store in the way Android and Windows Phone do).

On Android, Samsung has replicated Nokia's Symbian strategy, offering Galaxy devices, with a whole range of Samsung software customisations, at a range of price points and form factors. Nokia is pursuing the strategy with its Lumia line up, which has made Nokia the Windows Phone manufacturer of choice.

With Nokia delivering on their side, and with Microsoft expected to update Windows Phone 8 at some point this year, the Lumia range is likely to stay well ahead of the rest of the Windows Phone range, as it increases Nokia's market share and unit sales.

That's why Freking has revisited his opinion on Nokia's chances, and that's why many people will be looking again at Nokia during 2013.

Source / Credit: Bob Freking