Microsoft makes its presence in premium smartphone market

Dubai: Microsoft launched two premium smartphones running on its latest Windows 10 operating system in the UAE, the first after taking over Nokia’s phone business in 2014.

“We were absent in the market for close to around 16 months and these devices — Lumia 950 and 950 XL — are the first to carry Windows 10 OS. Windows 10 is a big bet for the company and it is working very positively,” Vithesh Reddy, general manager for Lower Gulf at Microsoft Devices, told Gulf News on Tuesday after launching the devices and showcasing the Surface Pro 4 tablet.

Daniel Gleeson, senior analyst at IHS Technology, said the devices are solid and have all the specs of a modern flagship device, but they don’t have a feature or design element that will really make them stand out.

“Most consumers will need a convincing reason to move away from iOS or Android to the relatively barren Windows ecosystem,” he said.

He said these new phones will definitely help Microsoft as it was badly lacking presence in the high-end market.

“What is more important for us than the design is the experience part and productivity. We see the mobile as a perfect partner to the PC, laptop or tablet. You can use this as an extension to your PC and can run two separate apps on the two devices,” Reddy said.

Microsoft is targeting professionals, Windows fans and enthusiasts with the phones.

“People are not buying devices because of the design; they are buying because of the experience and what it does for the people. The launch of the new devices is launch of whole new business, starting from scratch with the high-end devices,” he said.

Moreover, he said that app downloads have increased fivefold since the launch of Windows 10 universal app store.

Universal apps are a big part of Microsoft’s promise to create a “truly cross-device” operating system.

“We have moved from device-centric view to experience centric. We have 110 million users running Windows 10 OS, out of this, 8 million are business PCs,” said Mohammad Arif, Windows Business Group Lead at Microsoft Gulf.

“There may be an increase as it launches new flagship products for the first time in over a year. While Microsoft has made some progress selling low-end, cheaper smartphones such as the Lumia 530, it will need to gain some traction in the high-end of the market to attract developers to the platform,” Gleeson said.

According to research firm International Data Corporation, Microsoft will attain a market share of 2.2 per cent this year and will be able to achieve only 2.3 per cent in 2019.

For the MEA (Middle East and Africa) region, IDC does see that Windows 10 will have a positive impact and expects Windows Phone in total to grow to over 3.8 per cent by the end of 2016, a rather small piece of the pie in the face of the ongoing competition.

[BOX] Specs and features:

• 950 is a 5.2-inch OLED handset (2560 x 1440 pixels resolution) powered by six-core processor, while 950XL is a 5.7-inch OLED device with an eight-core processor.

• Both handsets have 20MP rear camera with a dedicated button.

• Triple LED RGB (red, blue and green) flash with optical image stabilisation.

• 4K recording support.

• 3G of RAM and 32GB internal storage capacity and expandable up to 2TB.

• USB Type-C connector.

• The phones can act as a PC via Windows 10’s Continuum feature called Microsoft Display Dock. The dock will feature HDMI, DisplayPort and USB ports.

• Windows Hello feature for unlocking a device using a fingerprint of face.

• 950 is priced at Dh2,099 and the 950 XL at Dh2,349.

• Available from Thursday.