Rumours: Nokia’s Windows Phone device, Nokia W7 and W8 (and bump up of Windows Phone minimum Specs-not rumours)
N8's awesome camera, Ovi Maps for Navigation, ie9 browsing, Mango multitasking, Ovi Store front for Market place? Yes please! Not sure N8's successor will have Windows on it. Might actually be Symbian. According to rumours anyway.
Today seems to be a day mostly of Windows Phone news, but most of that has a lot to do with the Microsoft event this week. Surfing through the other Nokia channels, there’s not much in the way of other news.
Anyway, as engadget puts it, the eternal Nokia Antagonist, Eldar Murtazin apparently has a scoop on upcoming Nokia handsets powered by Windows Phone. Man, I told you he was in that spyboat at Nokia HQ. We’ve given it some time to pass and his tweet has already spread far and wide:
- w7, supposedly like the Nokia X7
- W8, supposedly like the Nokia N8
- Dozen windows phones planned for 2012
- Thomas Ricker is right. Nokia Hardware with some Mango is kinda yummy for many. Not all but it will be a pleasing experience.
- Apparently, Nokia looking to make the most powerful windows phone at announcement (well, not too hard. All current Windows Phones are ‘beaten’ by the likes of the Moto Atrix – the 2011 standard in Smartphones)
So, not exactly an unexpected name. Wseries for Nokia’s Windows Phone. I think this was already joked about before Nokia even mentioned Windows Phone.
In his blog, Eldar mentions they’re running Qualcomm chipsets (As well as other usual Eldar-to-Nokia remarks – e.g. by the time Nokia gets dualcore, Android handsets will have quadcore. I’m paraphrasing. Google translate says 4 nuclear CPU :S)
When? Nokia have mentioned they’re trying to get these out by 2011. I’m cautiously optimistic they’ll make it.
Cheers Alan, HaugMedia and Rant for the tip!
WP minimum specs
I might as well add this here but Over at Engadget again, they’ve found out the new minimum specs (cheers Yemi)
Either Qualcomm’s second generation snapdragon MSM8x55 with Adreno 205 GPU (seen in HTC Thunderbolt or Xperia Play) or MSM7x30 (Also with Adreno 205), just 256mb RAM. Gyro has become a minimum spec as seems to be the windows button. Why not just a home button?
How will Nokia push Windows Phone down the price range as it takes the place of Symbian? Will it just be first gen minimum specs (with parts getting cheaper) or entirely new range of Windows Phone Basic?
Fingers crossed Nokia doesn’t just stick with minimum specs.
Category: Nokia, Windows Phone
About the Author (Author Profile)
Hey, thanks for reading my post. My name is Jay and I'm a medical student at the University of Manchester. When I can, I blog here at mynokiablog.com and tweet now and again @jaymontano. We also have a twitter and facebook accounts @mynokiablog and facebook.com/MyNokiaBlog. Contact us at tips(@)mynokiablog.com or email me directly on jay[at]mynokiablog.comSubscribe
If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to receive more just like it.
just read this too, i wouldnt be surprised if this was the N8-01 we’ve been hearing about
being housed in an N8 chassis would cut down production/design time (a new device would take some time) which would help meet the 2011 time frame
yeah.. on the other hand I would imagine they want to start of with a new design. Would be very surprised if they just shoehorn it to an existing design.
Agree. A supposed W8 would look nothing like the N8 and would have an entirely different underlying engine. It might be a successor-in-spirit or a feature-analog but nowhere near the same.
It’s very likely going to look like a Focus or something.
W7 its an x7 looking windows phone
w8 is an n8 looking phone with a great camera and stuff
W7 + W8 + another dozen WP7 phones? Then we’re gonna have a W1 up to a W14
or successors very quickly. Seems unlikely to me…
Is 800×480 fixed or a minimum as well?
Yes. Every spec is minimum. The only non-negotiable so far is the 3-key setup at the bottom of the phone
From what i read it sounded like 800×480 was the only sceen resolution supported ?
LOL, the ‘Nokia Wait (W8)’?
I didn’t know the Finns did ironic self-awareness.
haha. Oh the puns that will come. And of all people to have a phone named by delay.
I will prefer W series to be mid-range windows OS phone, V series as Business focused windows phone and S series as the topend special and high end windows phone. Nokia should listen!!!
We need edit button.
“Replace will with would”
Why can it be Nokia showing their Weight
I was initially highly skeptical of Elop’s claim that Nokia could push WP7 to emerging markets and this spec bump is evidence as to why. WP7 isn’t standing still and as long as it’s not, that means spec bumps, and that means Nokia cannot push off lower-spec devices based on older platforms to emerging markets unless they want to cheap out on features.
I’m not even sure Nokia can really compete anymore with swifter down-market rivals like ZTE, Huwei and other Asian white box manufacturers.
They’ll be getting bloody fighting it out for every fraction of a percentage point in profit, ever hair thin sliver of margin.
Apple’s strategy of high margin devices looks like a smarter way to go in hindsight. At the end of the day, Nokia could blanket emerging markets with budget phones, but if they’re still out-earned by HTC and Apple with a fraction of the devices sold with a higher margin, then what’s the point?
Well, the point of Nokia’s emerging market smartphone strategy was to sell copyphones (existing phone in new chassis) based on older technology to these markets to provide (a) a Nokia upgrade path from dumbphones/featurephones and (b) a stepping stone to higher-end Nokia smartphones.
These phones were already developed technology that had made its life as “higher end” product in the developed economies so the incremental cost of producing them was very low and Nokia could profitably push smartphone price points down to the point that they were very affordable for people in these emerging economies.
This was actually good for Nokia since margins and ASPs are higher than they are for dumbphones and featurephones.
Now they won’t really be able to do that with WP7, so they are going to be selling dumbphones and featurephones to emerging markets and then have absolutely nothing else to offer them aside from high-end smartphones that they won’t be able to afford. Except for Symbian, I guess, which may or may not fly given its planned obsolescence.
This provides ample incentive for people who want to upgrade their Nokia dumbpbones but cannot afford whiz-bang top-of-the-line WP7 devices to leave the brand and check out the competition, mostly Android in this case.
Why can’t they do that with WP7?
Because you have to use hardware to meet Microsoft’s minimum specifications, which are likely to keep going up as WP7 matures and advances.
WP7′s minimum specifications make for an expensive phone right now. 2-3x too expensive for emerging markets. That’s not going to come down if the specs keep going up.
What will Nokia push into the low-end smartphone market?
Old gen Snapdragon’s (65nm) can easily cover the C6 range.
*EASILY*
Sure they won’t be able to push WP7 into sub 200 handsets but that’s not where they’re aiming them for right now.
Upwards of $350 is fair game for Snapdragon.
I think that sub 200 phones is where they are trying to place S40 in the future. S40 t&t phones are quite good but perhaps needs more eye-candy. (that sounds familiar ;p )
So what does that mean for consumers of this older generation product? Do they get an older version of WP7 with no ability to upgrade and doesn’t that risk fragmentation, which Microsoft is aiming to manage very tightly?
There isn’t really a software management model built into WP7 to handle low-cost devices. It’s all about high-end and all the work going on on the platform now is to add capabilities and features, which inevitably mean higher specs.
And let’s not forget that it’s not just CPUs and GPUs that are in question here. You have the high resolution screen, you have the flash memory, you have minimum RAM requirements and then you have the sensor requirements. All of that stuff really adds up – GPS, accelerometer, proximity, etc. There’s a reason why Nokia ships its low cost phones with zero flash memory and a MicroSD slot – cost. Not an option with WP7, which demands a minimum of 8GB.
You’re probably right that you could maybe just squeeze a WP7 device into the C6-01 price point, but perhaps with low quality materials, but a C6-00 price point? Forget it.
Devices like those in the 5200-series, which are hugely popular in emerging economies and in pay-as-you-go scenarios would cease to exist. These are quite profitable since they’re 3-4 year old technology in new packages with updated, lower-cost components – that’s Symbian’s very long, long tail.
In a WP7-focused Nokia world, either you’d get a S40 feature phone or you’d get an Android smartphone from ZTE or something – I think I know what consumers will be picking.
ZTE makes crap. Shouldn’t be too hard to compete with it. Just make a standard quality phone that works.
boycott chinese products. Don’t let ‘em become the new superpower.
pretty difficult to boycott Chinese phones. If you live in one of the countries mentioned, you’ll see why people keep buying them. (mostly price)
One reason is dual-sim. LG and Samsung understood this but Nokia is still standing still in this department. Almost a year later after announcement, C-2 dual-sim is still nonexistent
W8 like n8 hahaha. we can see the n8 for 4 month sell 4 milion devices and w8 for 4 month will sell 1 milion device. And microsoft will win but nokia will loose the market share symbian will dead. after 4 years nokia will bancrupt and elop will say sory my strategy was fail bye bye nokia, and elop go to work in microsoft.
LOL yes I’m sure Symbian will put Nokia back to #1.
btw, Nokia was losing marketshare before Elop announced support for WP7.
And their market share will plummet hard when they move to WP7. Stock price has already plummeted after Elop’s Black Friday announcement. It seems that the markets don’t trust Nokia’s WP7 move at all.
they’re still @ #1… they don’t need to be put back there
your ignorance is breath taking.
His ignorance takes breathing lol. I couldn’t help it.
I want Nokia to be the old Nokia, The number 1 in Mobile Choice. To do this they better have the best specs! If they come out with some sensible hardware they won’t sell again. They don’t seem to understand the average person does not care about OS Kernals and fragmentation they just want something that looks cool
say no to nokia windows phone, do not buy them.
like this page
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Say-No-to-Nokia-windows-phone/153995821320420
Hey Jay, you mentioned in the article that “Gyro has become a minimum spec.” Well, I just wanted to clarify that it is NOT a chassis requirement; it is optional for OEMs to add it or not.
>Source: http://www.wpcentral.com/no-gyroscope-access-current-windows-phones-only-new-mango-devices2
it is the design of ios and webos that catches people eyes! nokia will never learn!
do you think the designers at nokia good?
If the w8 will truly be the next flagship phone, they better use top of the line specs.
Dual core with 12 megapixel camera would be awesome.
i.hate that
backhomesearch
The ugliest picture I ever saw of an N8.
i don’t know why it’s taking nokia this long to get up to 800Mhz+ …….that’s all they needed for symbian and a better res and UI overhaul in Qt and BAM people will get nokia agian
and yea push the developers and have a port of the same apps on android,iOS and BB for symbian in Qt and they would be good since 70% of those apps are supported by the North America
I hoped for ST-Ericsson chips, not Qualcomm
I hope we dont W8 long for W8 or W7
I can hardly W8 for the Nokia W8!
Also, why stop at 12 megapixels? Go for 16 megapixels.
I’m sure Sony will be very happy to share its Exmor camera sensor technology.
If you want to make a flagship smartphone which is running a totally new OS, make sure that it is made to impress. Don’t settle.