Thursday, October 24, 2013

Nokia Lumia Family

The Lumia series is a line of smartphones and tablet computers designed and marketed by Nokia. Introduced in November 2011, the line was the result of a long-term partnership between Nokia and Microsoft as such, all Lumia smartphones run the Windows Phone operating system, aiming to compete against the iPhone and Android-based devices. The Lumia name is derived from the partitive plural form of the word 'lumi', which means 'snow' in the Finnish language.

On 3 September 2013, Microsoft announced its intent to acquire Nokia's mobile device business, expected to close in early 2014. As part of the deal, Microsoft will acquire rights to the Lumia and Asha brands from Nokia, but will be unable to use the Nokia brand on future devices following the acquisition. The following month, Nokia extended the Lumia brand into tablets with the unveiling of a Windows RT tablet under the brand.



History
From 1988 to 2012, Nokia was the largest vendor of mobile phones in the world, which included early smartphones built on its Symbian platform. However, in recent years, its market share declined as a 
result of the growing use of touchscreen smartphones from other vendors, such as Apple's iPhone line and Android-based products. In 2010, its market share had declined to 28%, and in April 2012, Samsung Electronics (a prominent user of Android) ultimately overtook Nokia as the largest mobile phone vendor in the world. 

In February 2011, Nokia's CEO Stephen Elop and Microsoft's CEO Steve Ballmer jointly announced a major business partnership between Nokia and Microsoft, which would see Nokia adopt Windows Phone as its primary platform on future smartphones, replacing both Symbian and MeeGo

Nokia unveiled its first Windows Phone 7-based devices, the mid-range Lumia 710 and high-end Lumia 800, on 26 October 2011 at its Nokia World conference.[7][8] Motivated by requests from the U.S. carrier AT&T for an LTE-enabled device, Nokia quickly developed the Lumia 900 as a follow-up, first unveiled at the 2012 International CES

In early 2012, Nokia released the Lumia 610, a new entry-level device taking advantage of the lower system requirements introduced by Windows Phone 7's "Tango" update. These new low-end devices were intended to improve Windows Phone adoption in emerging markets such as China. Later in September 2012, Nokia unveiled the Lumia 920, its first device to use the second generation of the Windows Phone platform, Windows Phone 8. The Lumia 920 also notably featured Qi wireless charging, NFC, and a "PureView" camera with optical image stabilization.

In 2013, Nokia also introduced the Lumia 925, a revised version of the 920 with a slimmer build incorporating aluminium, and the Lumia 1020, which features a 41-megapixel camera based on technology from its Symbian-based 808 PureView.

On 3 September 2013, Microsoft announced its intent to acquire Nokia's mobile phone business (including rights to the Lumia and low-end Asha brands) in an overall deal totaling at over US$7.17bn. Stephen Elop will also step down as Nokia's CEO and re-join Microsoft as its head of devices as part of the deal, which is expected to close in early 2014 pending regulatory approval. While Microsoft will license the Nokia name under a 10-year agreement, the company will only be able to use it on feature phones such as the series. These changes will result in future Lumia models being first-party hardware produced under the Microsoft brand.
On 22 October 2013, Nokia extended the Lumia brand with the unveiling of the Lumia 2520; running Microsoft's Windows RT operating system, it is Nokia's first tablet.