This mobile game is a pretty tough business right now, with compelling new smartphones raining down seemingly every day is device manufacturers line themselves up for the holiday season.
Nokia's festive offering is headed up by a pair of new Windows Phones, the Lumia 820 and Lumia 920, and despite the competition getting ever stiffer as we wait for the Nokia pair to actually go on sale, the company says it's fully confident its new lineup has what it takes to stand out from the competition.
That competition ranges from the iPhone 5 to the Samsung Galaxy Note 2, and takes in rival Windows Phone 8 offerings from HTC and Samsung (with others not far behind).
But Nokia India executive Vipul Mehotra, who was based in Helsinki for four years and led the negotiations that saw Nokia team up with Microsoft in the first place, isn't concerned.
“We are happy with the response Lumia 920 and Lumia 820 are getting,” Mehotra told the Times of India in an interview this week.
“We are very sure of the success of new Lumia phones. As for the Plan B, there is none. But what I can tell you at the moment is that we are committed to Windows Phone and we have many more exciting devices in pipelines. These two are just the beginning.”
Soundbites galore, but possibly the most interesting bit is the insistence that Nokia has no Plan B, simply because it directly contradicts remarks made not too long ago by his own chairman, Risto Siilasmaa.
To be honest, for Nokia's sake I'm hoping Siilasmaa is the one who's right, as the clouds are gathering rapidly now. The company has lost staggering amounts of money and market share over the past two years in gambling its future on Windows Phone, and still has very little to show for it.
Most worrying of all is the unwavering insistence from seemingly everyone in Nokia's hierarchy that everything is hunky-dory and the great revival is just around the corner.
Take Mehotra's comments on Samsung's rival Windows Phone 8 devices:
“We heartily welcome Samsung to the Windows Phone ecosystem and we hope that they get serious about it. It is good for the ecosystem. That said, we are number one in the ecosystem and we are going to keep it like this.
“As for the pace, we are now different. I can promise that with our expertise in design – just see how beautiful Lumia phones are – soon other companies will have to catch us.
We're waiting, Vipul. We're all waiting.
Via WMPowerUser
). Anyhoo, even 'back then' they tried to stir excitement over future devices