Nokia announced two Windows Phones at their annual Nokia World event this past October, the Lumia 710 and the Lumia 800. The latter has been getting all the attention, partly because it was the first to ship, but also because of the controversy surrounding the Nokia N9. The N9 and Lumia 800 represent an inflection point at Nokia where they decided to abandon the work that they were doing internally on MeeGo and instead bet the future on Microsoft’s as yet to be proven smartphone platform. But enough about the high end of the market, today’s story is all about the Lumia 710, which deserves a lot more respect than it’s currently getting. It’s finally shipping. Today in Taiwan, and over the next 7 days Singapore, Hong Kong, India and Russia. What makes the Lumia 710 special is that it’s nearly half the cost of the Lumia 800, yet it delivers roughly the same technology. The processor is the same, the RAM is the same, the only changes are to the screen, camera, and obviously the design. For 270 Euros you’re looking at a 5 megapixel camera and a 3.7 inch 800 x 480 pixel LCD, which to be honest is a bargin.
Now the question on everyone’s mind, or at least a majority of IntoMobile reader’s minds, is when will the Lumia 710 come to North America and how much will it cost? The bad news is we don’t know, the good news is that T-Mobile is holding a press event on the 14th in conjunction with Nokia. Even better news is that a Nokia Lumia 710 with T-Mobile branding has already appeared in the FCC, so it’s pretty much guaranteed that it’ll hit American shores. As to the price, T-Mobile is already selling the HTC Radar 4G, which has a slightly slower processor than the Lumia 710 (1 GHz vs. 1.4 GHz), but at the same time has a larger screen (3.8 inches versus 3.7 inches), for $99 with a 2 year contract.
If Nokia wants to be taken seriously in North America, they have to either match that price or better yet be a free device on contract. Anything over $99 and they’re asking to be ignored. Again.