{"id":23188,"date":"2012-09-27T17:43:47","date_gmt":"2012-09-27T15:43:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=23188"},"modified":"2012-09-28T08:10:20","modified_gmt":"2012-09-28T06:10:20","slug":"nokia-may-face-backlash-over-lumia-920-price-analysts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/mobile\/23188\/nokia-may-face-backlash-over-lumia-920-price-analysts\/","title":{"rendered":"Nokia may face backlash over Lumia 920 price – analysts"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nokia<\/a>‘s new Lumia 920 handset is being priced up to 25 percent higher than the rival Samsung<\/a> Galaxy S3, risking a consumer backlash that could endanger its attempt to restore its fortunes.<\/p>\n

Analysts said Nokia will struggle to explain the premium on the Lumia, seen as potentially its last chance to break into the lucrative smartphone segment and catch Apple<\/a>‘s iPhone and a string of other popular phones like the fast-selling Galaxy.<\/p>\n

The Lumia, which with its rounded edges and colourful covers look similar to its predecessors, was unveiled earlier this month and drew a thumbs down from many analysts who said it lacked the “wow” factor to challenge its rivals.<\/p>\n

It uses Microsoft<\/a>‘s Windows Phone<\/a> 8 software while Samsung Electronics’ Galaxy S3 operates on Google<\/a>‘s Android<\/a> system, the platform favored by many smartphone makers.<\/p>\n

“Windows Phone is still largely an unknown to consumers – they would probably expect to pay less if they are taking a risk,” said Ovum analyst Nick Dillon.<\/p>\n

“Hardware-wise they are pretty similar, it would be hard for Nokia to justify that extra cost to consumers.”<\/p>\n

Windows Phone has just around 3 percent of the global smartphone market, while the Android platform controls two-thirds of sales. Apple has around a quarter.<\/p>\n

Nokia said Swedish carriers would sell the Lumia 920 for around 5,700 Swedish crowns ($860), excluding subsidies. This compares with 4,515 crowns asked for a Galaxy S3 at Expansys, one of the leading online phone stores in Europe.<\/p>\n

In Italy, the Lumia 920 will sell for 599 euros ($770), compared with 530 euros for the S3, which has been on the market for four months.<\/p>\n

The S3 retails for 530 euros in Germany, where Nokia will ask 649 euros for the Lumia. In Russia the Lumia will sell for 24,990 roubles ($800), some 10 percent above Galaxy S3.<\/p>\n

“Nokia will find it difficult to command a premium over Samsung’s Galaxy S3 which is the pricing benchmark for a non-Apple flagship smartphone,” said Ben Wood, head of research at British consultancy CCS Insight<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Once the world’s biggest mobile phone maker, Nokia fell behind rivals in smartphones and has racked up more than 3 billion euros in operating losses in the last 18 months.<\/p>\n

Samsung sold 20 million of the Galaxy S3 handsets in three months.<\/p>\n

Apple remains confident of its ability to command a premium, selling its new iPhone 5 well above prices of Nokia and Samsung flagship models.<\/p>\n

Nokia’s volatile shares were 3.2 percent higher at 2.06 euros by 1305 GMT, regaining some of the lost ground from the previous trading session.<\/p>\n

($1=6.6220 Swedish crowns = 0.7788 euros = 31.3772 Russian roubles)<\/p>\n

Related articles<\/strong><\/p>\n

Nokia: running out of time<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Nokia Lumia 920 gets a November release<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Nokia Lumia 920 fails to impress investors<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Nokia, Microsoft putting all hope in new smartphone<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Nokia and Microsoft\u2019s last big play<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Nokia gains on Samsung\u2019s loss<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nokia’s new Lumia 920 handset is being priced up to 25 percent higher than the rival Samsung Galaxy S3, risking a consumer backlash that could endanger its attempt to restore its fortunes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":21544,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[25,2369,4050,187,52],"class_list":["post-23188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mobile","tag-active","tag-galaxy-s3","tag-lumia-920","tag-nokia","tag-samsung"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23188"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23188\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23207,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23188\/revisions\/23207"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}