Europeans show little interest in Nokia Windows Phone - survey

PanARMENIAN.Net - European consumers show little interest in Nokia's first smartphone using Microsoft's Windows Phone software, a survey by Exane BNP Paribas showed on Friday, December 16.

"With only 2.2 percent of surveyed buyers firmly intending to purchase the Lumia, Nokia's firstflagship Windows Phone is ... far behind the current blockbusters, Apple's iPhone 4S and Samsung's Galaxy S II," analyst Alexander Peterc said in a note.

The brokerage slashed its view on sales of the Lumia to end-users to just 800,000 from its initial "ballpark estimate" of 2 million and said this compared with launch-quarter sales of between 3.5 million and 4 million for Nokia's previous flagship, the N8.

Exane BNP Paribas cut its price target on Nokia shares to 3.30 euros from 3.70 euros and stuck to its "underperform" rating on the stock, which was down 1.3 percent at 3.736 euros by 0939 GMT.

The brokerage surveyed 1,300 consumers in the five markets where the Lumia 800 had gone on sale in the week started December 5, but narrowed the sample to 456 who had declared an intention to purchase a smartphone in the next month, Reuters reported.