The War between OEM’s for Low End Windows Phone Segment

When acquisition of Nokia was confirmed, Microsoft took its next step to expand its hardware partner and at BUILD new OEMs including Micromax, Karbonn, Xolo and more were announced.

Micromax became the first OEM, worldwide, to launch two new Windows Phones–Canvas Win W121 and Canvas Win W092. If you take a sharp look at Micromax’s Canvas Win W121, it’s an impressive device in terms of specs with 5 inch HD display and powered by Snapdragon 200 Quad core processor with 1GB RAM and 8GB internal storage. There is also a 8MP camera and 2MP front camera on the device.Its priced at Rs 9,500

Today, Xolo has announced its first Windows Phone device and it’s the lightest of all–Win Q900s. The phone comes with impressive specs for the price point (Rs 9,999) which has a 4.7-inch HD display and is powered by a 1.2 GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 processor with Adreno 302 GPU. The phone also comes with a 8MP rear camera with LED flash and a 2MP front-facing camera.

Experience and Old player, Nokia, made its new low end Windows Phone recently–Lumia 630–the first dual SIM, recently. The device comes with a 4.5 inch display, a quad core Snapdragon 400 processor with 512MB RAM. The device also comes with 5MP auto focus camera without a flash.

The War of OEM’s on Low End Windows Phone Segment

If you look at the hardware only, you can see from the specs, Xolo and Micromax have better specs than the Nokia’s Lumia 630. Lumia 630 comes with only FWVGA display, while the other two comes with HD display. Another major issue with Lumia 630 is that it features only 512MB RAM. Lumia 630 does not have flash and front facing camera which is again a deal breaker for many.

However, Lumia 630 comes with strong line up of apps which are exclusive to Lumia series. Here Maps integration, Nokia Camera App and so on. It’s definitely an advantage.

Experience vs Price

Windows Phone as an OS delivers an excellent experience. We don’t say that the Lumia Apps don’t make a difference but if you look at the way an average consumer thinks, he would see better hardware at lower or exactly the same price point. As an example I have give a Lumia 520 to my sister and all share cares about apps which are commonly used like WhatsApp, Facebook, A couple of games like Temple RUN and so on.

The Local OEM can put on better hardware spec because for them, the cost is only on the hardware side, specially with zero licenses free. There is no way to customize the OS and all they need is install and deliver it. They don’t have an overhead cost of Software or optimization process either.

This puts in a direct threat to the low-end Lumia devices. Why? Take an example of Lumia 630 which has few sensors missing, doesn’t have flash and has 512 MB RAM. While it delivers an amazing performance, XOLO and MICROMAX are giving more to consumers which will make Microsoft, from hardware perspective, re-think on its strategy.

If Microsoft leaves the low end segment to the OEM’s, quality might get on stake with no competition like Lumia devices. So to keep the quality at par, Microsoft needs to keep innovating everywhere. Specially with the whole Nokia Team with them, there is no excuse.

Those who are interested, here is the side by side specs comparison of these three phones.

Xolo Win Q900s vs Micromax Canvas w121 vs Nokia Lumia 630 Specs Comparison