Nokia to sell half million Windows phones in Q4 - analyst

James Faucette, an analyst at Pacific Crest Securities, has cut his forecast for Nokia Windows phone sales this quarter to 500,000 units from 2 million, saying that Windows phones designed by Nokia had no clear advantage over other manufacturers' devices. "With no breakthrough innovation, we believe Nokia's new phones are unlikely to get traction in a highly concentrated high end," Faucette said in a research note reported by the New York Times. He added that Nokia's Lumia phones were not competitively priced, and that the performance of phones with Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 software had been underwhelming. Nokia's Lumia 800 and Lumia 700 phones have launched in Europe and are expected to reach Asia in early 2012, while similar devices should follow early next year in the US. Microsoft's CEO Steve Ballmer has admitted Windows Phone 7 has not sold as much as hoped in its first year. Gartner estimated that 1.7 million units shipped in the third quarter of 2011. On its official blog, Nokia predicts that the Lumia 800 will be a hit in the UK, where it has concentrated the initial launch. "The level of pre-orders, as well as reaction in shops today, lead us to be very positive about the launch of the Nokia Lumia 800," it said in a post.