Microsoft’s Lumia 535 smartphone lands in SA

Johannesburg - Microsoft has launched its first branded Lumia smartphone on South African shores as the technology giant marks a transition from the Nokia brand.

The Lumia 535 comes in single and dual-SIM variants, has a 5 inch screen, a quad core processor with 1GB RAM and features the Windows Phone 8.1 operating system.

Recommended retail prices for the Lumia 535 start from R1 699 on prepaid while Microsoft expects contract prices for the phone to be around R149 per month.

Lumia branded smartphones have traditionally been affiliated with Nokia. But the Lumia 535 signals a departure from this tradition after Microsoft closed its deal to buy phone maker Nokia for $7.2bn last year.

"This is essentially our first Microsoft branded Lumia device,” Patrick Henchie, Head of Product for Microsoft mobile devices for Sub-Saharan Africa, told Fin24 at the Johannesburg launch on Wednesday.

“Not to forget about the current (Nokia) Lumia devices in market; we still support those; there'll be tech support; there'll be software updates for all those devices. It's just this one is about the brand transition, so it will have the Microsoft logo on the back and say Microsoft on the front of device,” he said.

Henchie told Fin24 that he expects the Lumia 535 to be available in major South African retailer outlets and from mobile operators in the coming weeks.

Microsoft is also upbeat that the smartphone’s low price-point.

"This is the first time that we've managed to get a 5 inch screen at below R2 000 in the South African market,” Henchie said.

Listen to Fin24's tech editor Gareth van Zyl interview Patrick Henchie of Microsoft:

Windows Phone’s global market share

Nokia smartphones were the first to adopt the Windows Phone operating system, even before Microsoft made its bid to buy the Finnish handset maker for $7.2bn.

However, the Windows Phone operating system has struggled to gain global traction as it has faced fierce competition from the likes of Google Android and Apple iOS which provide users with options to choose from millions of apps.

According to research firm Gartner’s third quarter update for 2014, phones equipped with the Windows operating system only had a 3% global smartphone market share.

Gartner researchers also placed Windows in third position behind iOS at 12.7% and Android at 83.1% with regard to OS smartphone market share.