Nokia Corporation (NOK) Delivers a Thud at Press Event

Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK) had spent a lot of time and energy ramping up hype in the weeks leading up to its big press event Wednesday morning in New York that unveiled the new Lumia 820 and 920 handsets that would run the soon-to-be-released Windows Phone 8 operating system by Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT). Though there is general consensus from technology and smartphones reviewers that while Nokia built solid handsets with interesting features, a couple of items left out of the press event took the air out of the Nokia balloon before it really got off the ground.

Nokia Corporation (ADR) (NYSE:NOK)

Three things the markets wanted to know from Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK) about these phones – the anticipated retail price, the U.S. wireless carriers that would sell it, and the official release date – were found wanting. There wasn’t even a vague allusion to any of the three things. There was no hint reported, and with no certainty – essentially no actual evidence of anything outside of the prototypes at the press event – of these phones being in the market, shares of Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK) stock fell nearly 10 percent in the U.S. and about 13 percent in Europe.

“It is impossible to assess this launch without price and roll-out info. This is disappointing,” said Bengt Nordstrom, CEO of Northstream, a telecommunications consulting firm.

The Lumia 920 is considered the top-line “flagship” for the Windows Phone 8 operating system, boasts wireless charging capability and  PureView camera technology that greatly reduces blurring due to hand motion on a market-competitive 8.7-megapixel camera.

While by many accounts Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK) had plenty to brag about with its new smartphones, it seemed the markets and investors wanted more simple and basic information than technical things like features, processors or cameras. And it seems in that regard, Nokia failed the markets and will have to work to rescue itself and provide some certainty before investors bail on the company altogether.