Upcoming Lumia 925 should bolster Nokia’s top end but threats in the mid-range could be rising

Two weeks ago, when Nokia featured Lumia 925 as an upcoming device on its India website and also slashed the price of Lumia 920 by almost Rs 5,000, it signaled at least two things.

One, Nokia was more confident of its Windows-based offerings than ever before and hence was able to put a much bigger bet on the Lumia range now. Two, India was more core to its global turnaround strategy than what even the initial internal thinking within Nokia would have suggested (it must be noted that when Nokia announced the device for a select set of countries for Lumia 925, India did not feature in the list).

In a span of just about 18 months, Nokia has made a significant shift forward from its erstwhile sagging Symbian platform, with India being an important part of its revival journey so far. Particularly, the Asha series ofphones, which were pivotal to the transition during a good number of quarters in calendar year 2012, saw a good uptake in India. It however, cannot be overlooked that the Asha series of devices didn’t perform well enough during the first quarter of 2013.

The Asha series of devices broadly cover the price segment ranging from Rs 3,500 to Rs 7,700, from where the Lumia series takes over. The Lumia range retails from just under Rs 8,000 to Rs 32,000 today, served by Lumia 510 at the lower end and Lumia 920 on the upper end.

The void created in the Rs 37,000 bracket, which Lumia 920 earlier addressed, is likely to be filled by Lumia 925, which in fact is being expected to retail at around Rs 39,000.

The upper end of Asha’s price range is where a serious challenge could be lying for Nokia, especially from Android-based devices pushed both by global makers like Samsung and LG as also by homegrown brands like Micromax, Lava and Karbonn. Nokia would need to pay close attention to bolster its presence and value proposition in this price segment in particular.