Microsoft has been building up its line of affordable prepaid phones for some time now. One of the more popular budget devices, the Lumia 635, finally has a successor: the Lumia 640 and 640XL. While I can’t say I’m a fan of Microsoft’s naming convention, these little budget phones are actually pretty sweet and are likely to make a bit of a splash in the market. Or so Microsoft hopes.
The 640 is expected to retail for around $160 while the XL version is going to be around $200. In a surprising move, Microsoft also announced that it’s going to release LTE versions of both the 640 and 640XL, which will add around $30 to the overall price. And, to make the deal even more provocative–because, let’s be honest, those prices are good, but not earth-shattering–both phones will come with a free year’s subscription to Microsoft Office 365. That subscription can be expanded to a tablet and PC as well, I believe. Storage space for Microsoft’s cloud service, OneDrive, and 60 monthly minutes on Skype will also be included.
While both devices will ship with Windows 8.1, when Windows 10 is launched, the devices will automatically qualify for the software upgrade so users can take advantage of all the fancy new services (and undoubtedly be the first to experience the glitches). Both devices have pretty good specs overall, including dual-SIM capabilities, but mostly the specs are nothing super important so I’m not going to list it out. You can take a peek at them
here.
According to the CNet article, these budget devices are actually aimed at emerging markets, where smartphone proliferation isn’t quite as high. Since it was recently announced that Windows Phone’s market share decreased from 3.3% to 2.7% perhaps aiming at these markets is a wise choice. Android and iPhone clearly control the western and european markets, although Windows would be foolish to completely disregard these venues as well.
I haven’t seen any official announcements as to which carriers will support this phone, but historically AT&T usually has a pretty robust lineup of Windows phones.
GSM Arena reported that the phone will be compatible with AT&T, T-Mobile, MetroPCS and others.]]>
