By A. Stephanie
Bruce Howe (L), Gary Chan (R)
Lumia, Microsoft’s brand of smartphones, today unveiled two low-to-mid-range smartphone series focused on the sub-US$100 (RM370) market in Malaysia.
The Lumia 430 retailing here end of April will be priced at RM319 whilst the dual-SIM 640 will retail for RM739 upon hitting shelves this Friday.
The focus on low-to-mid-range devices also plays to Nokia’s strength in this market, a year after Microsoft took over the Lumia brand of smartphones upon acquiring Nokia’s devices and services businesses.
“In Asia-Pacific, especially in markets like Malaysia, the sub-US$100 smartphone category is expected to grow by 40% this year,” Microsoft Devices pan-Asia marketing head Gary Chan told KINIBIZ.
“This outstrips the 10-15% growth shown by Malaysia’s overall smartphone market, hence the reason for the 430 and 640 launch,” he said, adding that at RM319, the 430 hits a sweet spot for those looking at getting their very first smartphones.
“Another target market is working professionals in Malaysia’s second- and third-tier cities,” he added.
Asked how these could compete with smartphone upstart Xiaomi, which has eaten into smartphone heavyweights Apple and Samsung shares in the market with its cheaper equivalents, Chan said: “If you look at Nokia’s heritage of quality and camera optics, I think we provide a better processes and built quality than Xiaomi, which is primarily a device manufacturer.”
The 430 builds on Lumia’s dominance of sub-US$100 smartphones via its 525 and 520 models, which Chan said, gave Microsoft the second largest share of the market in Malaysia last year.
Bruce Howe, Microsoft Devices sales general manager for Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei, said: “With the 430 selling at one-third the price of the 520, it is the cheapest Lumia we have and will ever shipped.”
Howe refused disclose sales targets for both the 430 and mid-range 640. The 640 series comprising the 640 and slightly larger 640 XL is Lumia’s first pair of 4G dual-SIM phones.
While the 3G-enabled 640 XL will retail at RM929, Microsoft is still in discussions with mobile operators to determine the pricing of the 4G-enabled variant.
The 640 series is aimed at those just entering the workforce, or looking at purchasing low-end Android phone models, Chan noted.
Both the 430 and 640 series come pre-installed with the Office365 suite of Microsoft Office services on the cloud, as well as the Windows 8 operating system.
All Windows 8-enabled phones will be upgraded for free to the software giant’s newest Windows 10 that is expected to be officially launched this summer.
The push towards low- and mid-range smartphone models is also part of Microsoft’s strategy to build an in-store based of devices compatible with Windows 10 by end-2015.
Cognizant that Windows phones are still outsold by iOS and Android devices, Chan said Windows 10 would also have a universal app platform, inclusive of iOS and Android-based apps.
“Developers will be able to design apps on a single code base, to be available across all these operating systems,” he explained.
Currently, the Windows ecosystem has over 590,000 apps across all devices, as well as 70% of the more popular iOS and Android-based apps.
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