At the London O2 Arena today, Nokia and Telefonica jointly launched a new, 64GB variant of our powerhouse cameraphone, the Lumia 1020. Conversations caught up with the General Manager Devices for O2 in the UK, David Johnson, to ask about the network’s new launch.
Creating a range for a network involves putting yourself in other people’s shoes, he explains. “We work from the perspective of customers’ needs. We’re looking for higher, medium and lower-end devices to meet different budgets. But then we’re also looking to be able to give people more choice and for unique features.
“Nokia Lumia has been very helpful in this regard. For one thing, it offers a different interface thanks to Windows Phone, at a time when the rest of the market is split between two choices. That’s not very exciting for customers, so we were very happy to see the arrival of another choice.
The physical appearance of the Lumia range has been one very positive feature. But with the Lumia 1020, of course, it’s also a game-changer for very different reasons. “They’re really colourful, so they stand out on the shelf. And then there are stand-out features:
the 41-megapixel camera on the Lumia 1020 is completely unmatched in the industry. There’s simply no competition at present.
“With that camera on your phone, there’s no need to own another camera. You can go on holidays, do whatever you like.”
Working with Nokia, Telefonica has specified its own variant on the regular Lumia 1020, one with double the storage capacity.
“We think there’ll be a lot of demand for a 64GB device. Because the phone shoots high-resolution pictures, there’s a lot of demand for storage.
“But it’s not just about pictures. We’ve recently launched our 4G service here in the UK, and that’s going to make a lot of difference to what people feel they can do with their phones. There’ll be even more of an expectation that, whatever you can do at home on your PC, you’ll also be able to do on mobile.
“In some ways, it should be even better, since our 4G service is faster than a lot people’s home broadband.”
In closing, David says he’s really pleased to be able to have devices from Nokia at the high end of the operator’s range.
“People come into the shops and ask for Nokia because of reliability, the quality and the ease of use. Things that were always true of the company’s phones in the past.
“There aren’t many brands that people really hold in their hearts, but that’s true of Nokia. And with the latest Lumia phones, it feels like they’re back.”