According to the latest numbers by Neilsen, Windows Phone 7 currently has a miniscule 1.3% market share in the United States. That, compared to 58% of Android is almost as good as not being there. In between Windows Phone, Nokia is the only brand that is tied completely to the OS. HTC and Samsung develop Android smartphones as well so the failure of Windows Phone 7 should not effect them too much. Nokia however do not enjoy such a position. Failure of Windows Phone means failure for Nokia.
With Microsoft announcing a 7.8 update for current Windows Phone instead of the 8.0 update, many users are wondering whether it’s wise to buy into a Windows Phone 7 contract right now or not. This is a very dangerous position for Nokia because they have nothing new to offer until WP8 is available. They cannot just sit idly either because one more bad quarter and that could be the last straw. The only thing left is to somehow make their Lumia phones seem less of a pointless purchase than they really are.
To do this Nokia has slashed the price of their top end Lumia 900 to just 50$ on AT&T. This is a healthy cut from the previous 100$ price. This still doesn’t mean Lumia 900 will get the big WP8 update, but it does mean that it’s now one of the cheapest higher end smartphone available on the market today. There are many people who’re not bothered by the lack of Windows Phone 8 update and just want a cheap smartphone for basic use. For them Lumia 900 just became a whole lot more attractive.
But will this be enough to get Nokia by this quarter till they come out with a Windows Phone 8 device? It may just be enough, by a very small margin.