Nokia 8 goes on sale in NZ
Nokia’s first high-end android smartphone, the blue Nokia 8, hit Spark shelves yesterday with a $999 price tag.
It features dual-sight – the ability to film through the front and rear camera simultaneously, creating a split-screen video or photo.
Spark customer and marketing general manager Clive Ormerod said the device’s live streaming capability is likely to attract millennial buyers.
The Nokia 8 can capture 360-degree audio, adding to its sell as a video filming specialised device. Other smartphones in Nokia licensee HMD Global’s range, the Nokia 3 and Nokia 5, will be sold exclusively at Spark on Friday, with the Nokia 6 arriving on October 24.
Technology analysts said Nokia would face tough competition against smartphone makers Apple and Samsung that have established market leading positions.
The arrival of the range comes one month after Apple’s latest iphone 8, iphone 8 Plus and iphone X reveal, and two month’s after Samsung’s Galaxy Note 8 launch.
HMD Global acquired the manufacturing and distribution assets of the former Nokia phone business from Microsoft last year.
In an effort to climb from its third position in the global smartphone market, Huawei released its P10 range in March this year.
Ormerod said only the Nokia 8 would be competing with Apple’s iphone’s or Samsung’s Galaxy smartphones.
He said the varying price points of Nokia’s range appealed to a variety of customers.
The Nokia 6 comes in black or silver and will cost $349. The Nokia 3 comes only in black and is the cheapest in the range, costing $249.
Once a leading mobile phone maker, Nokia sold to Microsoft in 2014.
HMD Global acquired the manufacturing and distribution assets of the former Nokia phone business from Microsoft last year.
But Ormerod said Spark was excited to reintroduce the brand’s revamped technology to New Zealand customers who would decide the brand’s fate here.
He said he expected sales to go ‘‘pretty well’’.
‘‘People that grew up with a Nokia are going to see something quite new.’’