Nokia Lumina targets entry-level smartphone user, step up from trinket-like Android phones

Nokia, with the Windows Mango Lumina series set to be released into the Canadian market in early 2012 is targeting the mobile user that wants simplicity in their mobile experience. They say their device, the Lumina 800 in particular, is "easier, faster and funner".

Company representatives I spoke to Wednesday in Toronto said that consumers can be intimidated by the complexity of an iPhone or sophisticated Android device such as the Samsung Galaxy S. The Lumina is meant to be an entry-level smartphone in terms of sophistication targeting the feature phone or basic smartphone user looking for a small upgrade. It's certainly a step up from the trinket-like Android phones that use previous operating systems that you can still find at wireless carriers across Canada.

The Lumina phones will come with a pre-installed version of Microsoft Office for the professional Windows user, have XBOX Live capabilities which will be no doubt be popular among an older gamer audience, and has a very simple touchscreen interface with eight customizable buttons to choose from at the outset among a myriad of other simple features including visual image search and QR Code scanning integrated into one Bing app much like Google Goggles.

Perhaps more interestingly, the Lumina 800 comes with more cloud storage (25 GB) versus hard-drive storage (16 GB) as we see a continuing shift towards the cloud in mobile.

There are predictions that Mango could hold as much as 20% of the worldwide smartphone market by 2014 or 2015. 

Nokia even said that the Canadian developer community is slowly shifting towards Mango with Polar Mobile on board to develop over 300 apps for the once sky high carrier.