Earlier this year Sprint announced that they would indeed begin carrying Windows 8 devices this year, which will hopefully pan out for them as their only attempt at a Windows Phone 7 device, the HTC Arrive, could hardly be considered successful. After hearing the news I wondered if it was too late for Windows Phone 8 to do very well with Sprint. It seemed that the company had strayed away from Microsoft in general and cared more about Android and Apple products. However, the Nokia Lumia line seemed to be doing very well for Windows Phone 8 and is considered the forefront of any device currently running on the mobile OS, and if Sprint could get a Lumia variant on board with their lineup then I would bet a lot of money that they would sell.
Unfortuately it doesn’t seem that this will be the case.
Rumors have been circulating lately that Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile will see Lumia variants in their inventory, but conspicuously Sprint is not mentioned in regards to these rumors. According to Sprint, The Now Network will feature Windows Phone 8 devices from tech giants HTC and Samsung. That’s all fine and dandy, but when I think “Windows Phone 8” I don’t think HTC or Samsung; I think Nokia.
I will give it to HTC for the 8X. It’s a great phone, a very similar design to the Nokia Lumia line and also has Beats audio integration. I’m happy that they will be supplying Windows Phone 8 devices for Sprint, but I feel like when it comes to additional options that Nokia would have been a better manufacturer to go with instead of Samsung.
Samsung is doing phenomenal things with their Android market, and it’s clear that is where most of their focus is geared towards. Hoewever, how well Samsung is doing with Windows Phone 8 is a completely different story. Samsung has only released one Windows Phone 8 device in the U.S. market, the Samsung ATIV Odyssey, which is a budget-friendly Windows Phone 8 device available on Verizon Wireless. While budget-friendly is good, if you’re going to price a device higher than a competing low-end device running the same platform and on the same network you should at least have a reason to give it a higher price – the Nokia Lumia 822, which is priced at free with a 2-year contract, had more to offer than the ATIV Odyssey, priced at $50 with a 2-year contract. I would have rather seen a high-end Windows Phone 8 product from Samsung than an overpriced low-end product. Windows Phone 8 is already struggling enough as it is, it could use some support with a larger selection of high-end products.
While I understand that Samsung probably wants to broaden its horizons by offering more than just Android devices, they should probably leave the platform alone unless they’re going to step it up. HTC and Nokia both have experience in the Windows Phone market. Samsung? Not so much. I feel that if Sprint really wanted to see this market flourish within its company that it should have gone with two companies who know what they’re doing when it comes to this specific platform instead of one who does and one who tries. Give Samsung its center stage spotlight where it belongs – to Android.
Who knows? I could be wrong. Maybe Samsung does plan to step it up when it comes to Windows Phone 8 and I’ll be eating my words a few months from now. I would just hate to see a second attempt from Sprint to spark an interest in Windows Phone go down in flames, and I think it would have been a good first step to at least include Nokia in the Windows Phone 8 lineup.
Images via Nokia
