Nokia Lumia 900: Is This the Beginning of Nokia’s Path to Recovery?

Nokia’s future has been murky ever since the Finland-based company announced their partnership with Microsoft. Skepticism over the partnership ran rampant as Nokia’s stock hit rock bottom while the pundits had a field day with the risky move, but the company’s switch from Symbian to the Windows Phone OS could finally be paying off with the release of the Nokia Lumia 900.

At one time, Nokia dominated the mobile market, but all that changed once Apple and Google entered the fray. Nokia’s failure is largely due to the company lagging behind in both innovation and design as they failed to adapt and foresee the eventual changes to the mobile experience. The introduction of the iPhone revolutionized the smartphone market, and Android made smartphones accessible for a wide range of users and manufacturers with their open-source OS.

It’s been a slow and steady climb, but Nokia has battled through all the adversity, and they’re poised to reclaim some of the mobile market share they once owned. For those of you skeptical of Nokia’s potential turnaround, you need not look any further than the impending release of the Nokia Lumia 900, as anticipation is at a fever pitch for Nokia’s flagship smartphone—pre-orders for the phone are surging and, at one point, it even made its way to the No. 1 position on AT&T’s Amazon Wireless best seller chart. Its success or failure could have a lasting impact on Nokia as they look toward making a dent in the pivotal US market.

Quoting Town Hall Investment’s research analyst, Jamie Townsend, Eric Savitz of Forbes writes about some of the positive signs and reasons for hope in Nokia and their future.

“Our renewed enthusiasm is primarily driven by Nokia’s smartphone business and our belief that long term the company is now poised to slowly reestablish itself as a meaningful player in smartphone markets around the world,” Townsend writes in a research note. “While we believe that Q1 and Q2 2012 will continue to show the struggle between the death of Symbian and the rise of WP7, we also believe the pieces are now in place for a gradual reversal in the market share losses experienced in the last three years. Specifically, we are expecting positive unit surprises in the U.S. and Western Europe over the next two quarters, albeit coming off a very low base and expectations.”

The company still has a number of hurdles to overcome if they want to break off a significant piece of Android and Apple’s dominant share, but even the company’s harshest critics will soon have to recognize that the Nokia-Microsoft partnership may not be the colossal failure they predicted it to be.

Whether or not you think I’m overstating the importance of this release, Nokia must not squander this opportunity as the impression they make with the release of their flagship phone could change the way consumers, investors and possibly even skeptics look at both the company and Windows Phone OS.