Has Nokia / MS gone INSANE!!! by targetting low end devices!!!

[salmanahmad]

The reason why Microsoft is focusing more on the low end and mid range side of phones is because that's the only place where Windows Phone currently has a massive chance of success.

In all honesty, I've come across a lot of Windows Phone users on the internet and in real life that would only use a low end Windows Phone (because of how we'll it runs) but if they had enough money to go to a flagship, they would have gone for Android or iPhone, that's just the way it is. Barely anyone is willing to dish out a huge sum of money for Windows Phone.

And this is also why the 520 was successful and the most popular Windows Phone to date, Microsoft learned from this and have targeted their efforts on this the low end side because of the success of the 520(and have further strengthened their efforts because of competition from Android One and Motorola).

Unless the 1020 or 930 magically started selling like hotcakes anytime soon, Microsoft won't have a lot of incentive to make a new high end Windows Phone anytime soon.

But Microsoft has promised a "Microsoft Lumia" smartphone pretty soon, let's see how that will turn out.

 

[cba191]

Manufacturers do it all the time. Ford GT. Acura NSX. Nissan GT-R. Mercedes SLR. BMW i8. The list goes on and on. Why do they do this? They do it to show what they can do. Do they make a profit on these? Generally, no. But the technology finds its way to future, lower priced products. What is much more valuable is the perception the general public has. The "WOW! They can do this? Maybe they're not boring. Or slow. Or limited. Let's check em out. " That is exactly what Windows needs!

 

[Thunder19]

I don't think MS is insane for targeting the low end marketing. Zero high end devices is what is insane. I know a lot of people mention the 930, but it's not available in the US so it doesn't count. What I think is absolutely crazy is Microsoft doesn't know how to communicate with the consumer market.

The 920 is 2 years old. Where is the replacement? Is there one even coming? What will it be? And when? The screen on my is cracked, so I'm wondering if I should just replace the screen (most likely), get the M8 Windows, or wait. Myself and others in my position are in the dark. I can't stand Android and there is absolutely no way I'd go to Apple.

 

[Harry Wild]

For an OS to excel, a company always needs a low end phone, hence Android is very popular. Nokia is doing the right thing by targeting low end devices & its working for them, people are buying low end devices. & who told you that 5C was a failure? It was a huge success & you call it a low/mid ranged phone? Its a high end phone for sure. Here in India it was launched at ₹38k($625). You call that cheap? I know that Nokia did a wrong thing by launching 930 in India too late, but that was due to the reason that 930 had overheating issues. Even though iPhones 5C/5S sold in huge numbers still apple is losing their market share because apple would never consider a low end phone. I also know that in other countries price of a phone doesn't matter, but in the upcoming markets, prices of a phone matter a lot.

From a business standpoint; Apple is king of the smartphones. It has around 50% profit margin and sell only high end smartphones pretty much! It has record profit this quarter and has a backlog of over 25 million iphones just in China alone! In the U.S.; there are no iPhone 6s to be found in quantities. Everything is to be shipped. You just cannot ask for a better demand scenario. Ebay selling the 6s at a premium! They still have a lot of countries to release the iphone 6 to for sales! In other words; Apple is clean up on the high end side of the smartphone industry where all the profit is!

 

[UncleGrandpa]

Most buy low end phones for kids or to have a substitute until their dream flagship comes along. With WP, the dream flagship never happens as compared to Android or IOS. That's a huge difference and frankly I'm headed back to Android for just that reason....for the new Motorola Turbo.

 

[colinkiama]

Most buy low end phones for kids or to have a substitute until their dream flagship comes along. With WP, the dream flagship never happens as compared to Android or IOS. That's a huge difference and frankly I'm headed back to Android for just that reason....for the new Motorola Turbo.

The dream flagship is the icon/930 but not many people even buy them. The 520 sells more than any other windows phone out there. Statistically Microsoft are doing the right thing.

 

[ivdza]

Do you use your mobile phones to travel to space? I mean..flagship. 100 mpx camera 16 gb ram,1TB etc..something like that? All humankind become slaves to technology. Phone is for call,sms and ocassionally internet.! I have Lumia 520,yesterday i was playing with LG G3,yes,it is awesome of course but its not PHONE anymore. Its spaceship that you can put in a pocket!

 

[JamesDax]

No.

 

[techiez]

From a business standpoint; Apple is king of the smartphones. It has around 50% profit margin and sell only high end smartphones pretty much! It has record profit this quarter and has a backlog of over 25 million iphones just in China alone! In the U.S.; there are no iPhone 6s to be found in quantities. Everything is to be shipped. You just cannot ask for a better demand scenario. Ebay selling the 6s at a premium! They still have a lot of countries to release the iphone 6 to for sales! In other words; Apple is clean up on the high end side of the smartphone industry where all the profit is!

There's no room in the high end space, Apple has it conquered, MS is try to gain a foothold where there is still breathing space.

 

[Paul215821]

The majority of users doesn't need a flagship, mid-level or even budget phones will do just fine for them. Not just in emerging markets, in developed markets, too.
The high-end market is saturated, there's no need to bring out flagship after flagship. Developing a phone is very expensive, and you need to move a lot of units to make a profit. If you bring out a new flagship every 3 months just because some other manufacturer brings a new flagship out, you'll just end up haemorrhaging money. And there is a flagship; the 930 (or Icon for those in the US). It might not have the very latest specs, but it can still hold its own against the newest generation Android phones. Focus less on specs, and more on actual performance. (And yes, I know a flagship phone shouldn't be lacking features from lesser-spec'ed phones, like Glance, but I can look past that.)
Keep in mind that the majority of users here, or any tech forum, are more feature-minded than the average consumer, so there is a bias in reactions.

 

[cba191]

The purpose of a lot of flagships, though, is the development of new tech, features, or function. Flagships in most industries don't make money. But the tech then finds its way into the mid level and the budget phones where the profit is made.
The flagships are the phone that the people on forums like this tend to gravitate to. The people that buy the flagships then promote the phone significantly more than the mid level and budget consumer.

 

[Andrea988]

The majority of users doesn't need a flagship, mid-level or even budget phones will do just fine for them. Not just in emerging markets, in developed markets, too.
The high-end market is saturated, there's no need to bring out flagship after flagship. Developing a phone is very expensive, and you need to move a lot of units to make a profit. If you bring out a new flagship every 3 months just because some other manufacturer brings a new flagship out, you'll just end up haemorrhaging money. And there is a flagship; the 930 (or Icon for those in the US). It might not have the very latest specs, but it can still hold its own against the newest generation Android phones. Focus less on specs, and more on actual performance. (And yes, I know a flagship phone shouldn't be lacking features from lesser-spec'ed phones, like Glance, but I can look past that.)
Keep in mind that the majority of users here, or any tech forum, are more feature-minded than the average consumer, so there is a bias in reactions.

I think the one thing many of us forget in fittings like this is the fact that most people don't know what spec their phone has and don't care either. That's why most retailers have the spec sheet tucked away in the depths of their ads - people are just not that interested. They just want a decent phone. A lot of people buy the top model as a status symbol, not because of the specs. That's why the iPhone is such a success, if you bought it on specs alone the phone would probably be an abject failure when you consider the price of it.

 

[Andrea988]

From a business standpoint; Apple is king of the smartphones. It has around 50% profit margin and sell only high end smartphones pretty much! It has record profit this quarter and has a backlog of over 25 million iphones just in China alone! In the U.S.; there are no iPhone 6s to be found in quantities. Everything is to be shipped. You just cannot ask for a better demand scenario. Ebay selling the 6s at a premium! They still have a lot of countries to release the iphone 6 to for sales! In other words; Apple is clean up on the high end side of the smartphone industry where all the profit is!

But there is only profit if you sell them in numbers. The point a lot of people forget is they only sell one (or more recently, two) models. If you consider how many phones Apple sells compared with the TOTAL number of phones that Samsung sell them Samsung probably sell more points overall.

Remember too that Apples venture into the slightly lower end of the market with the 5c was a failure.

 

[UncleGrandpa]

Apple can take up to a year or more in between their so called flagship models. I'd say they're doing ok with that strategy. Last I read iPhones are outselling Samsung flagships by a huge margin. Hence Samsung poor third quarter showing. Samsung is in a pickle....they no longer have the high end market to themselves, and they can't compete on the low end with the cheap Chinese and Nokia phones.

 

[creanyo]

We have to wait until well into 2015...I dont think they will launch more phones before Win10...also we have to consider all that was involved in the Nokia purchase...to have the synergies up and running takes time...

 

[bo_woods]

I can understand that MS may want to offer good low ends for those reasons n stuff but at the same time they HAVE ENOUGH low end phones!!Like really HOW MANY DO U NEED??520,521,525,530!!like OMG That's enough!!They should focus on making and ADVERTISING excellent phones comparable to Samsung and apple if they want success and then alongside that they can have their low end devices,but theirs really not even a need to "upgrade" a low end device..its just stupid.once u add features or hugher specs to a device that makes the cost go up defeating the purpose of getting the device n the first place,they should just release one high end phone,one low end phone with different spec options to vary the price(like the sp3) and then one phablet option a year.Perfect scheme.As long as the devices are good and advertised well then we should have a winner

 

[fatclue_98]

I think the one thing many of us forget in fittings like this is the fact that most people don't know what spec their phone has and don't care either. That's why most retailers have the spec sheet tucked away in the depths of their ads - people are just not that interested. They just want a decent phone. A lot of people buy the top model as a status symbol, not because of the specs. That's why the iPhone is such a success, if you bought it on specs alone the phone would probably be an abject failure when you consider the price of it.

I disagree. Even "flagships" today are an absolute bargain when you consider the full retail prices from smartphones of a few years ago. My favorite Windows Mobile phone was the HP iPAQ 910c from 2007. Sticker shock? Try $650 on for size. Those 650 bones got you a 416mHz processor, 128mb RAM, 2.4" resistive screen, WM6.1, 3.2MP camera and the best keyboard ever put on a phone (sorry BB fans). My Treo 650 from 2004 was about the same amount and boy was that thing a spec monster.

If a high-end phone from 2014 can cost the same as one from 10 years ago, I'd say STFU (not you in particular) and enjoy the best bang for the buck you'll ever see. A Lumia 635 goes for $100 out the door! That's crazy when you factor in B4YB.

 

[haikallp]

5C was a failre compared to the rest of their phones. Fact.

 

[haikallp]

It bothers me to but I understand their motive for doing that. The Lumia 530 is their best selling phone. Which means its the low end - mid range devices are the ones that are selling well. But by doing this, Microsoft is pissing its long-time WP users who wants to upgrade BUT attracting new users. They should release one high end device for every two low end-mid range device.

 

[Andrea988]

Apple can take up to a year or more in between their so called flagship models. I'd say they're doing ok with that strategy. Last I read iPhones are outselling Samsung flagships by a huge margin. Hence Samsung poor third quarter showing. Samsung is in a pickle....they no longer have the high end market to themselves, and they can't compete on the low end with the cheap Chinese and Nokia phones.

Yes but Samsung is just an example. It would be interesting to see who would win if you could buy any phone with your choice of any of the three operating systems (if you include Windows), which would sell the most! The point is we read all the time that the iPhone is the most popular phone but I think it's a false representation because if you want iOS you HAVE to buy an iPhone.

If the only android phone you could buy was, say, the Samsung S5 and the only Windows phone was, say, the Lumia 930 then the sales figures would be completely different.

Perhaps what I should have said to emphasise the point is who sells the most flagship phones, Apple or android? What I'm saying is if other manufacturers could make flagship phones with the iOS system which would come out on top then?