Nokia Launches New Lumia Phones - Analyst Blog

Finnish handset maker, Nokia Corporation NOK unveiled three new Lumia phones at the recently held Microsoft Build 2014 conference. The handsets are designed for both high-end and low-end users.

Among the three, Lumia 630 and 635 are budget friendly phones, while Lumia 930 is an expensive counterpart. Lumia 930 will hit Europe, the Middle East, Latin America and emerging countries like India and China in Jun 2014. However, the handset will not be available in the U.S., as it's an advanced version of Lumia Icon. Priced at $599, Nokia Lumia 920 boasts a 5-inch full HD display, 20-megapixel Pureview camera, a 2.2 GHz CPU, 2GB RAM, LTE support and 32GB built-in storage.

On the other hand, both Lumia 630 and 635 have 4.5 inch screens, 5-megapixel rear cameras and 1.2 GHz CPUs. The major difference between the handsets is that Nokia 630 offers single and dual SIM variants with 3G connectivity whereas Lumia 635 is a single SIM device with 4G/LTE connectivity. Lumia 630, single and dual SIM, costs $159 and $169, respectively, whereas Lumia 635 is priced at $189. Nokia 635 is primarily meant for the U.S. market as it has LTE connectivity whereas 630 will mainly target Europe, Russia and emerging countries.

Sales of Nokia's flagship Lumia smartphone series, based on Windows Phone 8 operating system, declined to 8.2 million in the fourth quarter of 2013 from 8.8 million in the preceding quarter. Recently, Kantar World panel ComTech's survey revealed that Widows phone sales have declined both in the U.S. and overseas. We expect the upcoming Nokia Lumia handsets to boost Windows phone sales.

In the previous month, the company launched Nokia X which is designed to run on Google Inc.'s. GOOG Android. The smartphone received substantial orders from China. We expect Nokia's upcoming Lumia phones and the recently launched low-cost Android phone to boost its handset business a part from safeguarding its position against major smartphone manufacturers like Apple Inc. AAPL and Samsung.

The sale of Nokia's handset division to the world's largest software maker Microsoft Corp. MSFT has been postponed until Apr 2014. The deal – which was expected to close by the end of this month – is facing regulatory and legal obstacles from certain antitrust authorities in Asia.