Nokia certainly talked the talk yesterday in announcing its Lumia 920 and Lumia 820 Windows Phone 8 Apollo handsets but investors, it seems, are far from impressed by the new arrivals.
The company's share price began to slide midway through the Lumia launch event in New York yesterday, and by the close of trading on Wall Street had lost a full 15.9% of its value.
The $0.45 drop reversed in a single day the steady rise Nokia's shares had enjoyed over the past month as investors bought into the idea that the new wave of Lumia devices would be real game-changers.
Clearly they believe that bubble has now burst.
“The challenge is that the world is working on the fourth, fifth and sixth editions of their devices, while Nokia is still trying to move from chapter one. It still has quite a bit to catch up,” RBC analyst Mark Sue told Reuters.
“People were looking for something that would dazzle. Most investors will view it as evolutionary, not revolutionary. Nokia has made some good progress, but investors were looking for quantum leaps. We didn't get that.”
And that's just the problem for Nokia right now. After 18 months of pain since putting all its eggs in the Windows Phone basket early last year, “good progress” is no longer enough. Nokia needs to produce something truly special, and while the company clearly believes the Lumia 920 is exactly that, there are concerns right from the start.
Chief among them is the fact that Nokia hasn't given any indication on just when the new Lumias will be available, or what they will cost. That uncertainty is costing the company dear.
Nokia may have stolen a march on Apple by announcing its new phones a week before the iPhone 5's unveiling, but we'd bet our life's savings that the new iPhone will be the first to go on sale. And with several other major players introducing new products this month, Nokia might already have lost the battle.
