As Nokia gears up to hand off its Lumia brand to Microsoft, one must look back and see what the Finnish manufacturer was able to do right. Time and again it has been reported that the low cost Windows Phone devices, Lumia 520 and Lumia 521, have proved to be major hits. Latest data from Ad Duplex reiterates that, with both variants accounting for 30 percent of all Windows Phone devices being used around the globe. In the U.S., the Lumia 520 has overtaken the Lumia 920 as the second most used Windows Phone device. Of the entire Windows Phone market in the U.S., the Lumia 520/521 command 30 percent.
The popularity of T-Mobile branded Lumia 521 has propelled the carrier ahead of AT&T as it now has the second most Windows Phone devices on a U.S. carrier. The future of these devices in the country is uncertain. While Nokia has launched the Lumia 525 which has roughly the same specifications as these two devices but comes with twice the RAM at 1GB, which makes it compatible with latest content on the Windows Phone Store. So far Nokia hasn’t said if it plans to release the Lumia 525 in the U.S. Nokia’s high-end smartphones still struggle in the market, with the new flagship Lumia 1520 down at 16th and Lumia 1020 at 12th on the list of most used Windows Phone handsets. The low cost strategy seems to have worked wonders for Nokia, the question is, will Microsoft go down the same road once it assumes control of the brand and of Nokia’s hardware business?
Filed in . Read more about Lumia 520, Lumia 521 and Windows Phone.