In an attempt to pump up Lumia sales, beleaguered handset
manufacturer
Nokia Corporation
(
NOK
) has tied up with the second largest U.S. carrier,
AT&T Inc.
(
T
) to offer its latest range of smartphones, which runs on Windows
phone 8 operating system (OS). AT&T will become the first
carrier in the U.S. to offer Lumia 920 and 820 when it will start
selling the smartphone range from the next month. Nevertheless,
Nokia and AT&T have not yet disclosed the price.
This is the second time that Nokia has teamed up with AT&T,
as earlier, the Finnish handset manufacturer tied up with the U.S.
carrier to sell Lumia 900, - the first LTE phone from Nokia's
stable. Inspite of AT&T supporting Nokia with its biggest phone
promotional campaign, the Espoo, Finland-based company failed to
capitalize and was forced to slash its price to get a better
acceptance.
According to Nokia, AT&T has committed to train its retail
employees to market its latest product. However, the company faces
tough competition from Asian manufacturer Samsung Electronics Co.
and HTC Corp., who have recently come up with their own
Windows-based smartphones.
At present, Nokia Corporation is in dire straits, losing in
every front. It remains severely challenged owing to stiff
competition, primarily from
Apple Inc.'s
(
AAPL
) iPhone and an array of other smartphone manufacturers using
Google Inc.'s
(
GOOG
) Android OS. However, teaming up with Microsoft hasn't yielded any
meaningful result as it still lags behind in the smartphone
race.
On September 5, this year, Nokia unwrapped its latest Lumia
offering, which runs on
Microsoft Corporation's
(
MSFT
) Windows Phone 8 software. The company's flagship Lumia 920 and
the mid tier Lumia 820 with several new additional features is
believed to be the last gamble from Nokia to win back the customer
confidence in Windows-based smartphones.
Although Nokia has declared that going forward it will tie up
with some more operators to launch Lumia 920, we believe that it is
collaborating with AT&T to capitalize its marketing prowess.
The embattled cell phone manufacturer will benefit from AT&T's
dedicated marketing effort, which will cut its own marketing cost
besides providing the opportunity to tap the operator's huge
subscriber base. If AT&T could come up with an attractive
offering then it is expected to bring some respite for Nokia in the
lucrative North American market.
We maintain our long-term Neutral recommendation on Nokia.
Currently, Nokia retains a Zacks #3 Rank, implying a short-term
Hold rating.
APPLE INC (AAPL): Free Stock Analysis Report
GOOGLE INC-CL A (GOOG): Free Stock Analysis
Report
MICROSOFT CORP (MSFT): Free Stock Analysis
Report
NOKIA CP-ADR A (NOK): Free Stock Analysis
Report
AT&T INC (T): Free Stock Analysis Report
To read this article on Zacks.com click here.
Zacks Investment
Research