European Telecom Operators Say Nokia Lumia is Not Good Enough

Four major telecom operators in Europe have told Reuters that the new Nokia Lumia smartphones are not good enough to compete with Apple's iPhone or Samsung's Galaxy.

Reviews of the new Lumia 900 found the device to have a nice solid feel but fall slightly short on resolution, camera quality, processor power, and memory. On top of unimpressive hardware specifications, the Lumia must also contend with the growing pains of Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 operating system.

"Nokia have given themselves a double challenge: to restore their credibility in terms of making hardware smartphones and succeed with the Microsoft Windows operating system, which lags in the market," the executive at a European operator said.


He said Windows Phone worked nicely with PCs and allowed you "to do tonnes of cool things" but few customers knew this. "If the Lumia with the same hardware came with Android in it and not Windows, it would be much easier to sell," he said.

In order to succeed, operators believe that Microsoft must do more to get Nokia's Windows phones into the market place.

An operator spokesperson said: "If they could lower the price we think they could sell more. It might be worth making it a bit of a loss leader to get it out of the door. It's not rocket science."

However, some consultants believe even this won't make the phones a success.


"The operators say to Nokia: 'We will try to bail you out if you and Microsoft come with the marketing money,'" says telecom consultant John Strand. "But even if the operators start to give away the Nokias for free, it will not make Nokia a success."

Most would agree that the Lumia 900 is a massive step forward for Nokia and Microsoft; however, it appears they may have fallen just short of a winning device.