Nokia to slash Lumia prices in India, Middle-East soon

BANGALORE, INDIA: Finnish mobile handset manufacturer, Nokia, is expected to cut the prices of its flagship Lumia devices in India soon.

It is going to tweak the price of the Windows-based Lumia to make them affordable to potential consumers in India, Middle-East and Africa (IMEA) regions, Tech2 quoted Nokia's senior vice-president, D. Shivkumar as stating.

It further stated that he explained that there are two business models - one where the handset is subsidized by service providers and the other where the consumer buys the phone independently.

"Most countries in the IMEA zone have the latter method of purchasing phones and Nokia is aiming to have a range of value points for it to attract customers of different varieties," it added.

Shivkumar, without specifying how much the price cut would be, apparently said that Nokia had rolled out eight Lumia devices in a span of a year falling in the price range of Rs. 10,000 to Rs. 38,000 and continued to work closely with Microsoft to bring Lumia devices to newer markets and price points.

The report also quoted Shivkumar saying that Lumia was supposed to be a prime challenger in the top-end smartphone segment and that they would come up with more handsets in the Windows phone series across a wider price band.

The more-affordable Asha series, on the other hand, will be targeted widely and he believes that the Asha Full Touch will be a hit amongst social-savvy users.