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Details are still sketchy on Nokia’s Mobile World Congress plans, but there are a few more hints than when the company first made its intention to launch something known.
Nokia intends to introduce a minimum of one new high-end phone, according to Forbes, who cited an anonymous industry source.
Don’t hold your breath that the handset in question is the Nokia Lumia 910 that was previously “leaked” on a Dutch Web site. While Nokia’s PR division kept a strict policy not to comment on rumors or speculation, its head of Imaging Experience of the Nokia Smart Devices, Damian Dinning, apparently told a fan that the 910 never existed.
Mobile World Congress is a crucial opportunity for Nokia to reaffirm its Windows Phone road map within its European stronghold. Microsoft’s Windows Phone platform has been a hard sell in Europe, where Android, iOS, and BlackBerry all surpass it.
In fact, executives like Yves Maitre, senior vice president of devices and mobile multimedia at Orange, told CNET last fall that a strong Nokia showing could make or break Europe’s Windows Phone sales.
“If Nokia/Microsoft is not successful in Europe,” Maitre said in October, “then it will be tough in other countries.” Maitre added that by Mobile World Congress conference, “we’ll know for sure if Microsoft is in the game or not.”
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The timeline may be more forgiving as the months march on, but Nokia is undoubtedly feeling a heady mix of pressure and confidence. During Las Vegas’ Consumer Electronics Show in January, Nokia successfully announced the Nokia Lumia 900 for AT&T and won CNET’s Best of CES award for the mobile category.
The U.S. triumph doesn’t look like it’s slowing Nokia down. The Finnish company will have its best chance if it follows up the Lumia 900 with a brand-new, hopefully radical phone design, rather than rehashing the Lumia 800/900 theme. With the industry’s largest mobile event–Mobile World Congress–happening at the end of the month, now’s the time for comeback kid Nokia to command the world stage.
