Lumia 920 launched with some new features that are good but failed to wow. Why?

The much awaited Nokia Lumia 920 was launched just about a couple of hours ago in New York. I attended a live online event and it seems that while the event managed to engage the audience, the venue wasn’t bubbling with excitement. It is not surprising that Nokia shares reportedly dropped after the launch. (See also: http://www.businessandmarket.net/2012/09/nokias-fate-hangs-by-its-next-lumia-due.html)

Only once throughout the event did the audience seem to clap and applaud spontaneously, when the “smart shoot” feature was discussed. It sounded like an incredible piece of technology though.

Both Nokia CEO Stephen Elop and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer made appearances at the event.  It was interesting that Elop did not fail to mention the Nokia Asha phones at the Lumia launch event. 

That could be indicative of plan B in case the Windows Phones don’t take off as expected or as soon as expected. He noted that the innovations gone into Asha phones made them look like low priced smartphones, especially with full touch models.

Ballmer rightly emphasized that Windows Phone was “unlike any other phone in the market.” He also took the Lumia launch opportunity to make a characteristic style statement, “Make no mistake this is the year for Windows. Windows phone, tablets, PCs.” He added that in the next couple of months the rest of the Windows Phone 8 software would be coming out. (See also: http://www.businessandmarket.net/2012/08/5-ways-in-which-nokia-microsoft-could.html)

Overall, there still seem to be some key highlights that could make Lumia stand out, provided the pricing too is right and the actual user experience and feedback is favorable:

“Smart shoot” would a user to ignore or edit undesired people and objects out, which would come very handy when shooting outdoors in public places. The device is apparently able to run a smart analysis to detect things one might want to remove from the image.

Nokia claimed that its lens assembly is up to 50% more effective than even some high-end DSLRs. It sports F2.0 aperture lens, which is possibly a smartphone rarity if not a smartphone first. It is also perhaps the first camera-phone to have lens-based image stabilization.

Lumia 920 is also using PureView camera technology which could capture five to ten times the amount of light than other cameras. Nokia also claimed that Lumia 920 could be a replacement for an HD camcorder, thanks to the floating lens technology put to use.

Another laudable thing demoed was a “super sensitive touch” technology, which would allow users to tap directly on the screen to swipe up and was claimed to work even while wearing gloves. This would be particularly helpful for use in cold weather. Lumia 920 would have two modes to be able to detect the bare skin and the gloved fingers.

The wireless charging feature had been leaked much before the event and it is very much there indeed. Then there is also the JBL Power Up, designed specifically for Nokia by JBL. Also featured is support for near field communication (NFC)-integrated speakers.

It seems that Nokia has put too much of emphasis on enriching the camera capabilities in the device, which would have been good had it also brought out some exciting features in other departments. It seems to have overlooked the fact that a smartphone is primarily a smart “communication-and-access” device and not a camera. Or are there some outstanding smartphone features that it failed to highlight?

Unlikely.