After Horrible Year of Losses and Layoffs, Nokia to Release Mango Powered Lumia 710 via Rogers

Perhaps the stunning downfall of RIM, once the Canadian tech media's darling much like Nortel years earlier, shielded an even bigger disappointment known as Nokia in the latter half of 2011. 

Canadian CEO Stephen Elop in February of last year in a 1300-word memo equated to his company standing on "a burning platform" that must change its behaviour. Nokia did endure thousands of layoffs, lost hundreds of millions per quarter, and entered a partnership with a struggling rival in mobile, Microsoft. That produced the Nokia Lumia series based on the Windows Mango operating system. 

When Techvibes was granted a sneak peek of the Lumia series in late November, I was no doubt impressed by the phone's ability to introduce simplicity into the smartphone market for some mobile users may feel intimidated by some of the more complex models like the iPhone and particular Android phones. 

Rogers will be releasing the Lumia 710 in February for $49.99 on select 3-year plans as part of Rogers' Smartphone Lite lineup of affordable devices. 

The Windows Phone Marketplace also has 50,000 apps to choose from as well, giving Nokia a chance to be a credible smartphone player in the Canadian marketplace.