Mixed opinions on how well Nokia Lumia launch has gone

Rating: After all, Elop has staked the company on this W7 Mango phone

Given that its future is staked on it, Nokia is pumping up the early indications of sales of the flagship Lumia 800 (W7 Mango) handset. It depends on who you speak to and how you interpret their answers as to whether Nokia will pull off a dramatic rebound. A buoyant Stephen Elop, Nokia’s current CEO, told a conference organised by Morgan Stanley last week that, “The reaction is remarkably positive.” The Finnish handset manufacturer got some moral support from Orange UK and there was good news from the Netherlands, too, where the Lumia sold out in some stores. Against this there were definite indications that consumers had been nowhere near as eager to acquire a Lumia than an iPhone 4S or even Android handsets from the likes of Samsung. Significantly, there were hints from Elop that his company wasn’t worried so much about margins on the new handset but building up sales volumes.

Nokia defnitively needs needs to rebuild its image as a smartphone supplier in developed markets.

A suggestion that Nokia has priced the Lumia 800 at less than the opposition might explain why Elop said his company was keen “to introduce the experience to consumers to get them to try it because we know once they try it they will like it.”

Let’s examine what Orange UK appears to have said. Well, the operator seems to have indicated that the Lumia had been popular in pre-orders.

Plus Orange also admitted that the handset had proved to be the most successful launch of a Nokia. That’s hardly surprising since we can’t recall a previous Nokia handset launch that has been this hyped.

Indeed, Nokia spokesman, Ray Haddow, in a blog here said that early indications from the operators and retail partners confirmed a high level of pre-orders.

GoMo News is also suspicious that the reason that the Lumia proved so popular with Orange customers was that it was linked to a deal that gave away a free Microsoft Xbox games console.

A nice piece of cross-selling by Microsoft, isn’t it? Help to boost sales of Windows Phone 7.5 (Mango) and its Xbox console at the same time.

However, over in the Netherlands there is a report that Phone House – which is the equivalent of the Carphone Warehouse in the UK, had sold out of its initial allocation.

This news emerged from a Tweet posted by Maarten Sonneveld of Microsoft Netherlands – who runs the official Windows Phone twitter account for the Netherlands.

Sonneveld sais that a new order had therefore been swiftly despatched to the Dutch retailer.

Ray Haddow also claimed demand for the Lumia had also been very high in another European market – France. Ah, but Orange is big there, too.

There’s no doubt that the Lumia 800 launched has not flopped (unlike certain recent products from HP). It remains to be seen just how many people wake up on Xmas Day to find a Lumia in their stocking.