Nokia partners Microsoft, Airtel on Lumia 520, 720 in Lagos

Nokia West Africa in a two-fold partnership deal with Microsoft and Airtel Nigeria, unveiled its Lumia 520 and 720 in the Nigeria’s market, today, Wednesday in a ceremony in Lagos, reports

DigitalSENSE Business News.

L-R Nick Imudia, Managing Director, Nokia West and Central Africa,

Olu Akanmu, Chief Marketing Officer, Airtel Nigeria, Chris Brown,

General Manager, Nokia West Africa and  Mark Ihimoyan, Consumer

Channels Group Director, Microsoft Nigeria showcasing the newly

launched Nokia Lumia 520 and Lumia 720 by Nokia in partnership with

Airtel Nigeria and Microsoft on Wednesday in Lagos.

This is coming as the partnership avails Airtel Nigeria to launch a free 500 Megabytes (MB) data plan for the first six months on the Airtel network when customers recharge with N1,000. Microsoft Nigeria on the other hand powered the device with Lumia and Office 2013.

Speaking at the unveiling, the Managing Director, Nokia West and Central Africa, Mr. Nick Imudia, said that with this launch, telecom consumers in Nigeria now have variety of choices to enjoy Lumia class of mobile devices.

He also said that Nokia Lumia 520 and 720 are a set of blend of premium style and innovation for a socially active crowd. Whereas, the Nokia Lumia 720 comes with a high end camera experience, while the Nokia Lumia 520 is the most affordable Nokia Lumia to date, bringing a fun and colorful experience to new consumers.

“The adoption of smartphones is growing rapidly in Nigeria,” he declared, adding that this growth is driven largely by the affordable smartphone segment, and Nokia is pleased to add the Nokia Lumia 520 to its range, while bringing signature Lumia experiences to new price points and consumers.

General Manager, Nokia West Africa, Mr. Chris Brown, pointed out that both devices offer many of the same digital camera lenses as the flagship Lumia 920, as well as maps and navigation from HERE, and super sensitive touchscreens for a highly immersive smartphone experience.

He assured that Nokia and Microsoft will continue to build the Windows phone ecosystem and, available exclusively for these two smartphones, just as the Nokia Lumia 520 and 720 come with colourful covers, namely Cyan, Yellow, White, Black and Red.

According to him, Nokia Lumia 720, for instance, has free global HERE maps and free regional HERE drive, 4.3” ClearBlack WVGA LCD, 2.25 D Gorilla Glass 2, Super Sensitive Touch for nail and glove use 2000 mAh battery, optional Nokia Wireless charging cover accessory and 1.0 GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4.

Also, he said, Lumia 720 has 6.7 mega pixel camera with auto-focus Carl Zeiss, LED flash, while the front has Skype high definition wide angle 1.3 mega pixel camera in addition to 512 Mega Bytes Random Access Memory (RAM), 8 Gigabytes mass memory that offers support for micro Sound Data card up to 64 GB to name a few.

Director, Global Partnership for Microsoft, Mr. Mark Ihimoyan, who stood in for the country manager, Mr. Emma Onyeje said that both devices have Windows 8, Office 2013 and Skydrive worth 7GB free storage.

Equally, he said, they come with “Apps 4Afrika” collection within the Apps Highlight in the Windows Phone Store, thus bringing even more locally relevant content, as consumers can also enjoy the best local apps such as Jandus Radio, Soundcity and Konga.

Microsoft, he said, is confident that the Lumia range from Nokia, including the Lumia 520 and 720 will offer excellent value for African consumers and will support both companies’ ambitious growth plans for the continent.

For the chief marketing officer, Airtel Nigeria, Mr. Olu Akanmu, Nigerian telecom consumers can now get the new Nokia Lumia 520 and 720 in Airtel stores with a pre-defined Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) card, from N28,000 for Nokia Lumia 520 and N49,000 for Nokia Lumia 720.

Remmy Nweke/DigitalSENSE Business News
... Making SENSE of digital revolution!