Nokia Lumia 710 Review - T-Mobile's Nokia WP7

Conclusions

The way the Lumia series is launching in the US is a bit puzzling to me. For all intents and purposes, the 710 is the first Nokia WP7 arriving on US soil, not its higher end brethren, the Lumia 800. Just like I noted with the HP Veer, it’s a daring move to put the midrange product out first, a step ahead of the super high end counterpart. No doubt that high end counterpart is coming at CES in some shape or form (possibly with LTE), but still, a daring move nonetheless. On the other hand, I noted earlier that the midrange is where I wager the volume of the smartphone platform war will be fought and won, and it’s here that WP7 is in a unique position to finally make feature phones obsolete. For $50 after subsidy, you get a device that comes with the same SoC as the other higher-end WP7 devices, a 5 MP camera that produces great photos, and whose only caveat is 8 GB of NAND.

For its first entries into the market as a Microsoft partner, Nokia has done reasonably well. Both the Lumia 800 and 710 are good phones, although neither admittedly has the sort of earth shattering appeal that Microsoft needs to truly win this race. To Nokia's credit however, its partnership with Microsoft was only just announced less than a year ago. Most smartphones are developed on a 12 - 18 month cadence depending on the complexity of the design and the amount of re-use. We won't see what Nokia is truly capable of with Windows Phone until the end of this year at the earliest. 

Perhaps that's a good thing as Microsoft still has some work to do on its own. The Mango update to Windows Phone brought about some much needed features, however Microsoft still needs to show that it can deliver substantial updates quicker than the competition as well as embrace new hardware platforms and leverage synergies with other Microsoft platforms. For Microsoft to catch up to Apple/Google's market share it needs to iterate quicker, migrate to faster hardware sooner and truly begin to flex its ecosystem muscle. Break down the barriers between Windows (PC), Windows Phone and the Xbox 360 and Microsoft will have a formidable mobile platform on its hands. I suspect Windows 8 is the start of this, but we need more. If Microsoft can commit to building a world where there's significant overlap between what you can run on your PC, Windows Phone and Xbox 360, I have faith that this platform is destined for great things.  I want to be able to play Microsoft published Xbox 360 games on a console connected to a TV, on a Windows 8 PC/tablet or take them with me on a phone. 

If, on the other hand, Microsoft doesn't do this - if in two years we don't live in a world where there is mindblowing integration between my Windows PC, my Xbox 360 and my Windows Phone - then the platform deserves to fail. Microsoft will have squandered its biggest advantage. 

In conversations with Microsoft the response to all of this is usually a clever smile and a nod. We're usually told that we'll be pleased with what they've got planned. Microsoft has a great hardware partner in Nokia (arguably one of the best in the business) and it has a vast library of content, games and applications that are begging to be ported. Microsoft needs more powerful hardware to pull off some of what we're asking for (ahem, Krait is supposed to be Xbox 360 class at some point, no?) and it needs to execute quickly. 

I'm not ready to say that I believe Microsoft will pull this off, but I'm willing to give Microsoft the benefit of the doubt. Microsoft has the ability to choose whether or not this race is already over.