Microsoft, which acquired Nokia last year, is now making efforts to grow its mobile market share in the U.S. In this regard, the company will be offering more of its Lumia smartphones through U.S. wireless carriers, says a report from Re/code.
Microsoft betting on Lumia to win U.S. market
Microsoft, which is busy with Windows 10, plans to bring some phones it sells elsewhere to the U.S. As of next week, you can buy a Lumia 640XL for around $250 with an EMI of $8.34 a month for 30 months through AT&T wireless, while the Lumia 735, which is already available online, will be in the stores next month. The Lumia 735, which costs $192, can bought with an EMI of $8 a month for 24 months through Verizon.
The U.S. market is dominated by the Android and iOS devices, while Microsoft only accounts for 3% of the market. However, the Redmond-based firm has achieved some success by selling its affordable Lumia phones in the U.S. and developing markets. Moreover, for the U.S. market, where high-end phones are a must for success, Microsoft is planning to come up with a new flagship device by the end of this year.
Lumia 640XL to compete with big-screen phones
As U.S. buyers are more inclined towards jumbo smart phones, the Microsoft Lumia 640XL is expected to offer strong competition to the iPhone 6 Plus, the Samsung Galaxy Note 4, the Asus Zenfone 2 and the Nexus 6. Microsoft Lumia 640 XL has a 5.7-inch display, with 1 GHz quad-core Snapdragon processor, a 13-megapixel HD rear camera with Zeiss optical lenses, a front-facing 5-megapixel HD camera, and 8 gigabytes of onboard storage that can be expanded with an SD card.
The Microsoft Lumia 735, which has a 4.7-inch 720p display, comes with a camera of 6.7 megapixels, and has a front cam or selfie cam of 5 megapixels, and is powered by1.2GHz quad core.
The Microsoft Lumia 735 and Lumia 640 XL both will be shipped with the Windows Phone 8.1 OS, and will be updated to the newer OS when it is rolled out by the end of the year. Attracting and maintaining developers for its OS has been a concern for Microsoft. However, with Windows 10, the company is hoping to attract more developers as the new OS makes it easy to create multi-platform apps that can run on PCs, tablets and desktops.
