It's been a year today that the first Windows Phone bearing the Nokia brand landed in the UK – so are there any signs that Nokia's made the right move?

In that time Nokia has created the Lumia brand, re-thought its design strategy and, apparently, had a big influence on the direction Windows Phone is taking – a big move away from the brand than spammed high street phone retailers with every style of handsets imaginable.

'Last year we didn't have the Lumia brand, Nokia was [essentially] a new player in the smartphone space, especially in the UK,' Conor Pierce, Nokia's Western Europe general manager, told TechRadar. 'We were resurrecting Windows Phone in its own right, which is a big challenge for any company – especially one that's in the turnaround we're in. We have to think differently.'

There's no doubt that Nokia led the charge in the Windows Phone space over the last 12 months. In the relatively short amount of time since the likes of Stephen Fry took to the stage to proclaim Microsoft's rebooted phone platform was a worthy contender to the likes of Android or iOS, the sales of HTC, Samsung and others' Windows Phone handsets were mediocre to say the least, with around 8 million handsets sold worldwide before Nokia jumped in.

It was also good to hear Pierce talking about Nokia 'thinking differently'. From an industry point of view, one of the biggest problems the Finnish had pre-Windows Phone was promising amazing handsets that didn't deliver.

Memories of sitting through a 30 minute 'lecture' in 2010 by Nokia executives on how important it was for consumers to be able to hook your N8 up to a big screen TV and play 5.1 surround sound still rankle – cries from those assembled that this was pointless without content (as well as not addressing the fact the UI was so poor) fell on deaf ears.

It was this thinking, this stubborn refusal to notice that handsets running Symbian paled in comparison to the likes of the technically-inferior iPhone 3GS in the eyes of consumers that caused CEO Stephen Elop to send that memo, talking of Nokia's 'burning platform'.

While Nokia's stance may not have changed completely in Elop's reign (Nokia World 2012 was far too heavily skewed towards extolling the unlimited virtues of the Lumia 920 without revealing the key details on price and release date) the last year has clearly been a worthwhile learning experience for the brand.

"The likes of the Lumia 800, 610 and 900 have been great starts and given us good momentum in the UK,' said Pierce. "We're proud of what we've achieved. Would we like to be somewhere else in terms of growth? Of course we would. Have we learnt a lot? Yes we have. Are we a different company? We now have this start-up mentality whereby where we are hungry to add value, to listen to people and become a leaner organisation that makes sure the feedback lands in the right place."

But let's not forget the task Nokia was faced with this time last year: essentially giving up on its mature-yet-flawed Symbian OS and starting from scratch with the Windows Phone brand, with only its strong retail channels and brand awareness for company.

And while Nokia was responsible for increasing the share of Windows Phone worldwide, around 10 million Lumia handsets sold in those 12 months isn't a strong number at all, considering Apple sold over double that amount of iPhones in the last quarter alone.

While you can't expect a company even of Nokia's magnitude to come in and start selling phones at a frantic enough pace to start troubling the big players, it still showed the magnitude of the journey ahead.

And to compound that, the launch of Windows Phone 8 didn't help things in terms of timing; consumer awareness of a new range of handsets coming in November contributed to slow sales of the current Lumia brand in Q3.

Pierce was quick to jump on that point, suggesting that the Windows Phone 7-powered range of Nokia handsets had become another retail choice:

"The Nokia Lumia 610 and 800 have never been selling better than they are now; they're positioned very competitively and [retail staff] are more happy selling it now as they can enhance the messages that it all the benefits in terms of SkyDrive, Office, Xbox [that Windows Phone 8] has. Early signs, in terms of sales, show there's strong interest in that.'

It's been widely reported that Nokia was forced to slash the price of its Windows Phone 7 handsets in the lead-up to the next iteration of the OS in order to clear the surplus stocks – cuts of up to 15% on handsets now mean it has strong propositions in the PAYG space with the aforementioned phones.

But these handsets could present a headache a few months down the line, when they're stuck on Windows Phone 7.8 (which has still yet to launch – Pierce tells us that isn't stifling sales 'And when it comes, a huge base will be able to upgrade') and the flagship phones will be running Windows Phone 8, with many apps that will only run on the newer platform.

With Windows Phone being such a nascent platform though, this kind of division is necessary to propel it forward – every OS has a history of abandoning the early adopters when it attempts to become more mainstream, and Nokia was forced to ride the same current.

But how is this once-great brand attempting to offer something unique in the face of the merciless competition? Ideas like polycarbonate shells, innovate camera optics and inbuilt music services help give it an edge over the Windows Phone competition, and give consumers something different to consider when browsing at their local phone emporium.

It's a strategy to be commended; aside from the obvious benefit of not being accused of copying the designs of another firm, which can be costly even when innocent, Nokia is working to prove that not everyone clamours for the shiny aluminium phone, that there are millions looking to differentiate themselves more.

However, therein lies the company's biggest failure since its rebirth. While alternative and colourful designs will attract many, there are far more consumers out there swayed by the super-svelte, the impossibly thin, the brushed aluminium designs that can still house all of Nokia's impressive technology.

By stubbornly refusing to go down this path, Nokia is creating a rod for its own back – instead of consumers being attracted to a design then asking for reasons to buy it, Nokia is being forced to spend many hours educating retail staff in the benefits of Windows Phone and its technology, especially when the weighty 920 is compared to the lighter-than-air iPhone 5 or Samsung Galaxy S3 by the uncaring customers.

• iPhone 5 vs Samsung Galaxy S3 vs Lumia 920 vs HTC One X

If you have to tell people why your product is brilliant, you're already at a disadvantage in these hyper-competitive smarpthone wars.

With its strong feature phone market share being eroded quickly by super-cheap Android phones, and net cash shrinking with each round of financial results, Nokia (obviously) needs to make sure its Windows Phone strategy is a success

So how to sum up the last 12 months? Pierce himself stated that the brand would have liked to have seen better sales and more market share by now, and while early sales of the Lumia 920 have been promising, it's still locked as an exclusive to the EE network at a high tariff thanks to the 4G connection.

So 2013 will be a critical year for Nokia if it's going to start cutting swathes in the smartphone market, and Pierce believes the current focus is precisely geared for that: "Nokia is in a new position; we're driving towards a new goal and you'll see lots more coming with some very exciting things in the pipeline. But the most important thing is that we focus now."

That focus needs to be laser pointed on delivering what the consumer wants, not what the Finnish firm thinks it needs. The next phone needs to be something that compares with the Samsung Galaxy S4 on price, specs and design, not just one of those. It needs to say 'Nokia is back' in a way that doesn't rely on the benefits of Xbox integration or Skype to make the sale.

In short, Nokia has quietly impressed over the last year, getting itself in a position to really make a strong play for consumers' affections. Now it needs to deliver a phone that can capture that.

Source : techradar[dot]com

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Source : mobilemag[dot]com

The gaming industry has certainly seen better days and according to a new report from research firm NPD Group, the trend continued in the third quarter. Americans spent roughly $2.87 billion on gaming products and services in the quarter, down a single percentage point year-over-year.

Specifically, sales of physical goods like PC and console game discs accounted for $1.07 billion, a full 16 percent less than the same time last year. Consumers spent $399 million on used software and game rentals during the same period but it was digital content that had the biggest impact on the industry for Q3.

Full games, add-on content downloads, subscriptions, mobile games and social network games combined to generate $1.40 billion in revenue from July through September. Digital content sales increased 22 percent year-to-year.

As CNET points out, the industry as a whole has been going through some tough times as of late due to a number of factors including but not limited to sluggishness in the hardware and software market. Today’s consoles are nearing the end of their lifecycle. Microsoft’s Xbox 360 launched in North America exactly seven years ago today while Sony’s PlayStation 3 and Nintendo’s Wii console both hit store shelves roughly six years ago.

Things are expected to pick up in the fourth quarter as always thanks to the holiday buying season. This is the time of year that we typically see the most anticipated games launch and for Nintendo, we’re just a couple of days away from the release of their next generation console, the Wii U.

Source : techspot[dot]com

The Nokia Lumia 820 isn't meant as the Finnish firm's flagship handset - that accolade belongs to the Lumia 920 - but this colourful Windows Phone 8 smartphone is impressive nonetheless.

The Nokia Lumia 820 carries plenty of unique features and costs less than the Lumia 920, making it a tempting offer for anyone considering making the move to Microsoft's OS.

It goes without saying Nokia is pinning a lot of hope on this phone. Apple's iPhone 5 and Samsung's Galaxy S3 are kicking up dust both in terms of sales and as standard bearers for their respective operating systems.

You can pick the Lumia 820 up free from £25 per month on Vodafone, albeit with only 300 minutes and 250MB of data, on a 24 month contract. Alternatively the SIM-free version of the phone will set you back an entirely reasonable £380.

There's a reasonable amount of power on offer at that price thanks to the dual core 1.5Ghz Snapdragon processor and Adreno 225 GPU. Windows OS is a typically smooth operating system the Lumia 820 runs off 1GB of RAM which keeps things nice and slick.

Outwardly though, this is a different-looking phone from the Lumia 920. The unibody is gone, replaced with a removable plastic back that lets you change the colour of the handset. Our review model came with a bright yellow rear cover, although red, black, magenta, blue, white and grey are also available.

Hopefully over time third-party designs will become available allowing you to customise your handset just like the Nokia's of old.

Unfortunately, the back cover is also where we run into our first problem with the Lumia 820. Basically you'll need fingernails like Wolverine to claw the cover back from the body of the phone. It took the TechRadar team several amusing minutes trying to remove the casing in order to insert our SIM to begin using the phone.

Once you're happy with the casing, and you've spent the required ten minutes struggling to get your Micro SIM installed, you'll be able to sit back and notice that at 160g, the Lumia 820 isn't as heavy as its bigger brother.

It's also got slightly smaller dimensions - but at 124 x 69 x 10mm with a 4.3-inch AMOLED screen we wouldn't go so far as to call it tiny.

The curved sides and rounded corners of the handset make it comfortable to hold and certainly give it a friendly appearance. We could easily wrap our hand around the Lumia 820 and access the physical buttons, which are all located along the right hand side of the phone.

You get a volume rocker at the top, followed by the power on/off button in the centre and then a physical camera shutter button - something we're always happy to see on a smartphone. All the buttons can be easily flicked with either the thumb of your right hand or the fingers of your left, depending on which you use to hold the phone.

One point though, the plastic backing on the Lumia 820 is completely smooth which looks nice but doesn't offer any great amount of grip.

The front of the phone is minimal in terms of design, with just the Nokia lettering at the top and the three standard Windows phone soft touch keys at the bottom. While the 4.3-inch AMOLED, 800 x 480 screen is up to Nokia's usual high standard, there's definitely a noticeable black bezel around the display.

Usually this doesn't cause too much concern, but given the near edge-to-edge displays of handsets like the Motorola Razr i and the iPhone 5, it's becoming more of an issue.

The display isn't as large as other smartphones out there. It won't compete with the 4.7-inch HTC One X+, the 4.8-inch Galaxy S3 or the 4.5-inch Lumia 920, for screen real estate but compromises with portability.

Screen size itself is becoming far more of a subjective issue anyway with a device on offer at pretty much every stage from pocket-friendly smartphone to sofa-surfing tablet.

The top and bottom of the Lumia 820 are given over to the 3.5mm headphone jack and the micro-USB charging and connection port respectively. There's also a small speaker to the right of the micro-USB port which we felt didn't look as nicely uniform as the dual speaker vents on the Lumia 920.

Overall build quality is as good as you would expect given Nokia's long history of mobile phone craftsmanship. While we would expect the casing to scratch fairly easily if this phone took a tumble, there's a reassuring heft to the handset that suggests the internal workings would stay protected.

Importantly then, first impressions are quite good. It's a good looking, feature-packed phone from a pair of companies that really have something to prove this time around. So, how does it fare when we dip below the surface?

Source : techradar[dot]com