Nokia’s first Android-supporting mobile phone appears to be a success, Android Headlines reported March 25, citing Chinese site JD.com.
The Nokia X went on sale March 25 in China, and “promptly sold out in under 4 minutes,” said the report.
It added, “The Nokia X had gotten about 1 million preorders in the first 4 days, then 10 million within a week.”
Those preorders, however, are more placeholders than paid orders. The folks in Redmond, Wash.—the new home of Nokia smartphones—will be crossing their fingers that all those interested consumers follow through.
The Nokia X, designed for emerging markets, has a 4-inch display; satellite GPS; WiFi and 3G connectivity; access to popular apps like MixRadio, Here Maps, Here Drive and Skype; a 3-megapixel camera; a Snapdragon processor; the option of supporting two SIM cards; and a plastic wrap-around shell that comes in a rainbow of bright color options.
But, most notably, it’s the first Nokia phone that can open “hundreds of thousands” of Android apps.
Nokia seemingly put all its eggs in Microsoft’s basket back in 2011, when it abandoned Symbian for Windows Phone. (Reportedly, Nokia began planning the Android integration before it agreed, in November, to be purchased by Microsoft.) While Nokia has been modestly but steadily increasing sales of its Windows Phone–running Lumia smartphones, its share of the global smartphone market has been in the single-digits for years. With the Nokia X, Nokia will be able to reach a segment of users that the pricing of its Lumias has prevented it from reaching.
In the month since the X’s launch, Nokia has taken it on a world tour, showing it off to consumers in Malaysia, Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and Cairo—where, Nokia said in a blog post, putting things plainly, the team had an enjoyable day “and repositioned Nokia as a fun and innovative brand that reaches out to the young community.”
The X family includes a Nokia X+, which is optimized for “multimedia enthusiasts,” and a Nokia XL, with a 5-inch display and a 2-megapixel front-facing camera. The X is priced at 89 euros (or approximately $122), the X+ at 99 euros and the XL at 109 euros.
The Not-Yet-Done Deal
Microsoft announced March 24 that its acquisition of Nokia’s Devices and Services business has faced some hiccups—specifically, antitrust authorities in Asia are still conducting reviews and haven’t given their approvals—and so it expects to miss its intended first-quarter deadline for the deal’s completion.
The two have, however, received regulatory approvals in 15 markets on five continents and say they’re confident the deal will be completed in April.
While Android Headlines reports that the interest in Android-running Nokia phones in China “can’t be making Microsoft happy,” it’s not all bad news in Redmond. As analyst Jack Gold, with J. Gold Associates, has told eWEEK, thanks to licensing deals, “Microsoft today makes a lot more money on Android than Windows Phone.”