Microsoft’s Ben Rudolph sat down with Nokia product boss Jo Harlow during the Nokia World conference this week to get her take on the Finnish vendor’s first two Windows Phones, the Lumia 710 and the Lumia 800. Rudolph and Harlow had a great chat, but the meat of the interview certainly hits toward the end. When asked why a consumer would buy Nokia’s new high-end smartphone over the competition, Harlow didn’t mince words. “Yeah, the iPhone is simple to use. IPhone has a beautiful design. [The Nokia Lumia 800] is a gorgeous design, but the integration of the UI sets this apart. It is by far the best experience.” Read on for more.
Harlow continued, “And then, keeping in mind that the majority of us work, this is a great consumer smartphone but it’s a fabulous phone for business. The email application and the Office applications are better than the same applications implemented on Android, and certainly on iPhone. So, everything I want is there — it is easier, it is faster and it is a hell of a lot more fun.”
Nokia’s first two Windows Phones will launch in several markets beginning next month and continuing into December. Nokia confirmed that it will not launch either device in the U.S. this year, however.