Report: Nokia Lumia 800 for China Telecom Priced, Desperate to Succeed

We’re only two days away from Nokia’s (HEL:NOK1V; NYSE:NOK) desperately needed second-coming in China in which it will launch a couple of Microsoft WP7-powered phones. One news site, WPDang, has it on good authority that the Nokia Lumia 800 will be set at the official price of 3,699 RMB (US$585).

This pertains to the Lumia 800c model which is CDMA, and is therefore heading to China Telecom (NYSE:CHA; HKG:0728). And while that would make the phone 700 RMB ($111) cheaper than the telco’s iPhone 4S with a one-year contract (at the cheapest 3G package entry point), it’s worth remembering that the Nokia phone, for all its good looks, doesn’t have anywhere near as impressive a screen (just 800×480 pixels) as on the latest iPhone.

That 3,699 RMB price-point, while cheaper than some thought, makes the phone look pricey up against an Android-powered Samsung Galaxy SII. That device will probably follow in the tracks of the first iteration in being China’s most popular smartphone in terms of sales this year.

Still, at least it’ll be cheaper than the utterly pointless Meego-powered N9 (that sports the same form factor as this Lumia 800), which hit the market at nearly 5,000 RMB last autumn.

Nokia is holding a launch event in Beijing on Wednesday (the 28th), so we’ll soon enough find out what the price will be, and if it has any special Lumia app treats in store for Chinese consumers. Microsoft held its own WP7 launch event last week in which it emphasised that there are already 2,000 Chinese-made app for its mobile OS.

[Source: WPDang – article in Chinese]