Missing the Chinese New Year shopping season may prove painful to the smartphone manufacturer.
Though Nokia is still making top technology news with the release of its next smartphones, many are wondering if it has missed a tremendous opportunity by missing out on the shopping season for Chinese New Year.
The brand is advertising its Lumia 920T smartphone but it may not be able to deliver in time.
Following a massive traditional and mobile marketing campaign that encouraged Chinese consumers to “Change Phones for the New Year!”, the Nokia Lumia 920T may not be as accessible as the ads imply. This is because delivery shortages are leading the largest operator in China to fail to be able to sell the smartphones in the majority of the China Mobile outlets by the holiday shopping season.
This latest technology news reported that the Nokia device retails at $738 (4,599 yuan), but they’re nearly impossible to find.
China Mobile spokesperson, Li Yan, said that although China Mobile had ordered 90,000 of the Lumia 920T by January 30, the manufacturer shipped only one third of that number. This has caused the Finnish device manufacturer to miss out on one of the most important shopping seasons in China, its New Year.
Many are considering this technology news as an important misstep by Nokia, which is attempting to maintain a comeback that is only two years in. The manufacturer has been making much more positive technology news headlines with the progress that it has been making with its Microsoft powered Lumia devices. However, its most recent efforts have been falling short.
In the United States, for example, the holiday shopping numbers showed that they were behind the company’s projections. Now Nokia is risking a repeat of that same trend within the largest handset market in the world, where it was once clearly dominant and where it is attempting to resume a considerable hold. This Windows based device will require massive efforts to grab back some of the market share from the iPhone and from Android smartphones. By failing to ship enough handsets to this market for such an important shopping season, the technology news to follow could be defining for Nokia’s future.