Nokia 7600 doing the business for 3UK

February 16, 2004

Early indications suggest that the Nokia 7600 is pulling in customers for 3UK. The Financial Times reported that sales of handsets for 3 have shot up dramatically following the introduction of the handset in the Carphone Warehouse.

3UK decided not to sell the 7600 themselves because the phone does not support all of 3's service and have allowed Carphone Warehouse to sell the phone on their behalf.

The Nokia 7600 has become one of Carphone Warehouse's best selling phones. Chief executive Charles Dunstone said the company had ambitious sales targets for the Nokia 7600 but sales are well ahead of those targets. He expects the phone to continuing selling at around 5,000 units each week. 3's current Motorola A835 handset is only selling about 3,000 a week.

The Nokia 7600 is lighter than previous 3G handsets available in the UK but it does not support one of 3's most important feature, video calling. The odd looking handset is also smaller in size and comes with a longer battery life. Although users buying the handset would be signing up to 3's network, some of the premium services from the operator will not available for Nokia 7600 users. This shows that consumers in the UK, which has a legion of Nokia loyalists, are still more interested in the handsets rather than the service, something that operators such as 3 and Vodafone are keen to address.