By the end of last week, the Nokia X was reported to have attracted a whooping 10 million pre-orders in China. The reason for such high pre-order figures was probably not unrelated to the relatively cheap price the Nokia X is being offered in China – about N16,000 as against the official N20,000. And of course, customers weren’t required to pay until day or release.
It turns out the figures don’t lie. Within 4 minutes of the Nokia X launching in China today, the first batch units are reported to have sold out. As in, there are no more Nokia X units available for sale until fresh ones ship next week. I find it really interesting as China is one of the last places I would expect this to happen.
There’s still no word of official release date, neither is Nokia Nigeria taking any pre-orders yet but, going by its success in China, one would be tempted to assume things are looking very promising ahead of Nokia X release in Nigeria. And ordinarily they should, except for one minor snag. You see, the best-selling Windows Phone from Nokia, the Nokia Lumia 520, currently goes for N19,000. Let’s ignore the N16,000 price tag on the Nokia X in China for a moment and focus on the official N20,000 price tag. If we’ve learnt anything about official prices, it’s that even for devices officially supported, they always end up being sold in Nigeria at as much as 50% higher than official. I’m going to take a wild guess and peg the Nokia X at about N25,000 when it launches in Nigeria.
At that price point, I honestly believe it might have a tough time overtaking probably Nokia’s best-selling device right now, the Lumia 520. Of course, there is the Android attraction, albeit a different experience – what with Google services excluded and all. But one has to remember that the primary market is first-time smartphone adopters who have no idea what Google services they might be missing. Plus, there’s no telling what Nokia might have planned concerning the pricing in Nigeria. If they can pull it off in the world’s most populous nation, they could possibly pull it of in the world’s most populous black nation.
And with Nokia already collaborating with Android developers in Nigeria, to ensure popular local Android apps run seamlessly on the Nokia X platform ahead of launch, it appears there are many good reasons to believe the Nokia X will do quite well when it launches in Nigeria.
