The filming features in the Nokia 8 android-powered smartphone prove the brand is trying to pull in customers that use live social media video streaming.
Nokia’s first high-end android smartphone, the blue Nokia 8, will hit Spark shelves on Tuesday with a $999 price tag.
It features dual-sight – the ability to film through the front and rear camera simultaneously, creating a split-screen video or photo.
Spark customer and marketing general manager Clive Ormerod said the device’s live streaming capability is likely to attract Millennial buyers.
Only the polished blue Nokia 8 will be available at Spark from Tuesday.
The Nokia 8 can capture 360-degree audio, adding to its sell as a video filming specialised device.
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Other smartphones in Nokia licensee HMD Global’s range, the Nokia 3 and Nokia 5, wills ell exclusively at Spark on Friday, with the Nokia 6 arriving on October 24.
Spark customer and marketing general manager Clive Ormerod says customers could be hesitant towards the Nokia brand because of its historical failure to keep up with smartphone trends.
Technology analysts said Nokia would face tough competition against smartphone makers Apple and Samsung that have established market leading positions.
The arrival of the range comes one month after Apple’s latest iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus and iPhone X reveal, and two month’s after Samsung’s Galaxy Note 8 launch.
In an effort to climb from its third position in the global smartphone market, Huawei released its P10 range in March this year.
Ormerod said only the Nokia 8 would be competing with Apple’s iPhone’s or Samsung’s Galaxy smartphones.
He said the varying price points of Nokia’s range appealed to a variety of customers.
The Nokia 6 comes in black or silver and will cost $349. The Nokia 3 comes only in black and is the cheapest in the range, costing $249.
Ormerod said Nokia could face some backlash from customers’ negative connotations with the traditional brand that failed to keep up with smartphone makers.
Once a leading mobile phone maker, Nokia sold to Microsoft in 2014.
HMD Global acquired the manufacturing and distribution assets of the former Nokia phone business from Microsoft last year.
But Ormerod said Spark was excited to reintroduce the brand’s revamped technology to New Zealand customers who would decide the brand’s fate here.
He said he expected sales to go « pretty well ».
« People that grew up with a nokia are going to see something quite new. »
– Stuff
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