Nokia Lumia 900 Faces Rough Road Ahead After Big Launch

The Finnish company Nokia finally brought the Lumia 900 smartphone to AT&T On April 8, 2012.  In a market that is predominantly controlled by the duopoly between Android and Apple, many people were hoping that the Lumia 900 would shine as a beacon for Windows phones.  Unfortunately, Nokia has been faced with several challenges since the release of this device.

Poor Timing
As mentioned above, the Lumia 900 was released to AT&T stores on April 8th - which was Easter Sunday.  Since most of the stores were closed for the holiday, sales were meager (coming primarily from online sources).  The company issued a press release earlier today warning investors that they will probably be faced with lower sales in the first part of 2012.  The press release also indicated that they are only earning a 16% margin on their smart devices - probably as a means of penetrating the market.  With a hit to sales, they have little room for error.



Device Flaws
While trying to move from their old Symbian Platform to Windows, one can only expect things to get worse before they get better.  However, Nokia has been troubled with some performance flaws in the 72 hours since their launch. The firmware has been affected with a memory management problem and data connectivity woes.  IHS analyst Wayne Lam described this as "an embarrassment for Nokia, which was undoubtedly rushing this device to launch on AT&T’s 4G LTE network."  Rather than creating a resurgence in the U.S. market, Nokia could quickly vanish if they don't step up their sales in the coming quarters.

To compensate for the flaws that they have seen with the device, Nokia is offering a $100 credit to their AT&T bill for everyone who has purchased the device (or will purchase it) up until April 21st.  Previously, AT&T offered this rebate only to those who were new subscribers.  Thanks to Nokia, the device is effectively free for everyone who purchases it up until the 21st.  While this is good customer service, this may harm Nokia greatly during this quarter.

Nicki Minaj? Really?
On April 7th, Times Square was packed with people celebrating the launch of the Lumia 900 and Nicki Minaj's new album - Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded.  Nokia even had a DJ remix the song "Starships," which was played with an array of spectacular graphic displays.  While this launch probably cost Nokia a pretty penny, I personally think that they made a poor decision to partner with Minaj.  She isn't exactly the person I associate with "smart"phone.  You can see the video from the launch below:



What do you think?
This new phone offers many great features on a device that is essentially running Windows 7.5 software.  The features on it are comparable to many of the Android devices that are on the market.  Do you think that this phone will be the resurgence of Nokia?  Or do you think that their potholes from this week will cause them to sink in the American smartphone market?