Nokia is planning to launch its touch screen phone in late November. It is launching its XpressMusic 5800 series touch screen model.
The price is speculated to be around 20,000 rupees.
This should set up a new war in terms of pricing. As the touch screen phones launched off late are in 30000 ranges, including the recently launched Samsung Innov8 priced at 46000.
If there is one phone maker who understands Indian market well, then its Nokia. No wonder it is India’s second biggest brand only next to Shah Rukh Khan.
Nokia phones are known for its battery life and connectivity. Touch screen is more of an art perfected by Apple. It would be interesting to see how Nokia fares in this new art. Just going by the price alone, I could foresee it to be a big success only if it retains its strengths of battery life and connectivity.
Notable features of the phone include:
- 3.2 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss lens
- QWERTY keyboard
- 8GB memory
- Built-in surround sound stereo speakers.
There is some confusion around whether this is the first touch screen phone from Nokia in India. I read somewhere that this is the 3rd touch screen phone after Nokia 6708 and 7710. I could not verify that. I guess this would be the first popular Nokia touch screen phone. I really like the price of it. It is more affordable than the iPhone, HTC Diamond or the Samsung Innov8 (way out of my league). I would definitely give it a try.
Like it did for N96 it would like to partner with Shah Rukh and his company Red Chillies to provide the pre-loaded content in the phone. The content might include some games, something related to Kolkata Knight Riders and possibly a movie. Remember N96 was pre-loaded with Om Shanti Om.
When the top 2 brands collaborate it could become a unstoppable force. A report came after iPhone’s flop in India saying that Apple was using a skimming strategy to get a sense of the market. I think Apple missed a trick or two. You cannot sell something at an exorbitant price and call it a skimming strategy. You have to understand India to sell phones. Nokia did just that. It understood India.
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Author: Sriram Vadlamani
Sriram Vadlamni is a IT professional and an avid blogger. He blogs about India business at Indianomics.com and you can follow him on twitter @indianomics (Email: sriram.vadlamani@gmail.com)Related posts:
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{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
Nokia definitely had 6708 model in the touchscree category (I have owned / used it for 2 years). While the phone had good features, it was not successful in the Indian market and Nokia had withdrawn the model within months of launching it. In 2006, I had paid 19,000 for this phone.
Mohit
http://www.jobplaze.com
Man you think 20K is cheap? HTC is already selling its touchscreen phones at around 10K. Go check at Subhiksha and you will find HTC touch phones at ~10K. Yes if you are talking about high-end phone then yes Nokia is cheaper than iPhones and Samsungs of the world.
It will be interesting to see which one ends up being the biggest seller over time!
I agree wit u mohit, 6708 was da 1st touch screen fone frm nokia….n yash i think u shud go 4 da CHINESE touch screens or mayb, if it fits in ur budget, then the motorola A310, guess these r da choices u cn go for….20k is no longer hi-end in india considerin da amount of expendable income indians in metros hav….whts hi-end is only da foolishly priced iphone & da rip-off innov8….20k now falls in da affordable category yash…go get a pulse of da indian youth first….
Nokia is best among all cellural companies
Touch screen is not THE usp of Nokia..it comes with a Symbian phone means you can install what every applications . not like iphone which will only accept songs from itunes and u also cannot connect it to your friends laptop and if u did so all ur data from the phone is lost…..
a person buys iphone and lives by its rules and not how he wants it. As said correctly Nokia did understood the Indian market within a competitive price range gives ample space to stretch the phone.
wait for a month or two and you might get the touchp within 15k
but when i the phone going to be launched???
im waiting for this phone from october…
yes nokia is number one company but 5800 is costly. so no money. pause it. when it gets cheaper we can think about it.
guys……i have this phone now and its brilliant.its a very hardy mobile and even if u use it roughly, nothing gonna happen just because the name nokia provides guarantee.
when it comes for i phone…..5800 is surely the winner.its truely said that nokia understands indian market better cause iphone doesnt have sms forwarding feature in a sms crazy country like india,whereas nokia isknown fo its mesaging features…..so….this is a dynamite frm nokia.