One of the two most befuddling things to most people when Nokia announced its Windows Phone 8 line of Lumia smartphones – the other being lack of a ship/sale date – was the lack of pricing figures.

As someone who wants, and prays for, the success of Nokia, and Windows Phones in particular, I was mystified.

However, I assumed that the reason had to be that Nokia was waiting for the a) the rumored iPhone 5 to drop, and b) also wanted to see what the other Tier-1 Windows Phone manufacturers – Samsung, HTC – would be bringing to market for the Windows Phone 8 era.

Well, I’ve see the other OEMs’ phones.

Nokia has nothing to worry about.

I’ve also seen, and played with the iPhone 5, for about 20 minutes.

Nokia has nothing to worry about there either. They have reached feature parity with the iDevice.

So, what could derail Nokia?

Pricing.

Actually, pricing relative to other Windows Phone 8 smartphones.

Now, there are rumors that Nokia Lumia phones would be going on sale at a 10%+ premium relative to other Windows Phone 8 phones in Europe.

Which reminds me of Sony.

Sony, in pure delusion, thinks that it is somehow a premium brand. You know, like an electronics OEM version of Rolls-Royce or something.

You all know how successful that strategy is.

I sincerely hope that Nokia is not going along that path.

It won’t end well.

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© 2012, John Obeto II for Blackground Media Unlimited