russia

Nokia continues to roll out its premium music subscription service across Europe and beyond, and it's now time for Russia to enjoy the added benefits of Nokia Music+. Without a massive marketed announcement, consumers have witnessed the optional upgrade being made available at an attractive price.

Pricing for the Nokia Lumia 720 has surfaced for the Russian market. The 4.3" WVGA screened Windows Phone will run 14,990 rubles. Which comes out to be about $487 U.S.

The mid-range Windows Phone 8 device will sport a 1GHz dual-core processor, 512MB RAM and 8GB of storage. You'll also find microSD support, super sensitive display technology (like on the Lumia 920) and 1.3MP front facing camera and 6.7MP rear camera.

Ever since Microsoft has been a bit more candid about some of the problems with the 7.8 update, specifically Tiles that either don’t update or suck down too much data, there have been reports of Microsoft halting the update in some countries. Germany has been pretty much confirmed at this point as throwing the brakes and now Russia is evidently joining the crowd.

The Samsung ATIV S, the company's flagship Windows Phone has been priced for Russia. According to Mail.ru, the Windows Phone will be available in the first week of February for 24.990 rubles (approximately $830). It's an aggressive price to battle against the Lumia 920, but offers an SD slot and a slimmer design / build, which many consumers may prefer.

The Lumia 620, the Windows Phone 8 smartphone that's currently launching in emerging markets, has made its way to Russia. Available in five different colours: green, black, white, pink and yellow, the Lumia 620 is offered to consumers with minute personalisation in mind. Already released in China, Thailand and India, the Windows Phone is priced aggressively against competing hardware.

Looks like Nokia might be set to have a big announcement in early November for Russia, perhaps to showcase the Lumia 920 Windows Phone.  Or maybe the Lumia 820?

Not much is said about what’s to be expected but the invite does reveal some clues.

Nokia is rightly pushing photography as the big draw for the next generation of Lumia devices. The Lumia 920 has seen a barrage of OIS video and night photography tests. So it doesn’t leave much to the imagination when we get an invite with a girl taking a photo and a bat in the background. Not too subtle a reference really but we get it.

Nokia announces pricing for both new Lumias

Nokia has unveiled today availability and pricing for both of its new Windows Phones in a handful of markets. The Lumia 820, as well as the Lumia 920, will be heading to countries throughout Europe and beyond. We've long awaited confirmation on where the new hardware will be heading, not to mention how much it'll cost consumers to invest in.

What do you get when you pack a lift full of Russians, paid for by the Nokia Lumia marketing budget? Well, it's fairly difficult to describe so we'll let the three videos do the explaining of some superb marketing stunts.

The first video shows unsuspected members of the public in the "Amazing Nokia Lift" when a horde of what appears to be police officers charge into the small space and stare that person down. Once they've completely freaked out, the headwear is removed and a superbly executed version of "I Will Survive" is performed. 

Next up, we've got the Amazing Nokia Lift - Girls (pretty self-explanatory):

Not to mention the Amazing Nokia Lift - Angry Birds, which is a rampaging onslaught of character costumes being flung at the lift as it halts at each floor:

What's amazing about Nokia is how diverse their campaigns are. From 4D projection music events all the way to blowing away the competition with Lumia handsets, there seems to be no limit to the imagination of those involved. In the end we all now know that Russians win, at basically everything.

Sources: Youtube (Police, Girls, Angry birds); thanks everyone who tipped us!

Well this is interesting and we can't verify 100% at the moment, but we're told this is from the official HTC developer site for Russia (official HTC site is this: http://www.htc.com/ru/) and they're clearly showing off a Mozart for sale. No biggy there, but the fact that is says in red "UNIT HAS RUSSIAN LOCALIZATION" is of interest since as of now, Windows Phone doesn't have Russian. Heck, even the 7720 build of Mango doesn't have Russian on it, which means if this is legit it's certainly an HTC-OEM thing. You can evidently order it for 19,990 Russian rubles or about $690.

So does this actually have Russian language support? Does it run Mango? Maybe and it must.  Someone should pony up and we can all find out. Hey, if Japan can get the IS12T now, why not Russia? And perhaps, just perhaps that HTC announcement later today will shed some light on this sudden change. Stay tuned...

Source: HTC Developer Russia; Thanks, cehseven, for the heads up using our app!