Can the Lumia 1020 bring Nokia to the fore again?

Nokia finally has something that would make buyers notice its product while they are deciding whether they should go for the latest iPhone or Galaxy smartphone

“The back is the new front,” Stephen Elop exclaimed while announcing the Lumia 1020 at a launch event in NYC. 

The statement not only points to the exaggerated camera lens assembly required for the smartphone’s massive 41-megapixel sensor but also takes me back, in some ways, to Nokia’s shift to Windows Phone away from Symbian. 

Even after signing Symbian’s death penalty, Nokia launched the PureView 808 running on Symbian, acknowledging the fact that Windows Phone wasn’t ready for primetime. Two years later, Nokia has finally turned an entire circle. 

The Lumia 1020 marks the beginning of the end of Nokia’s transition period. After almost two years of launching the Lumia range of smartphones, Nokia finally has something that would make buyers notice its product while they are deciding whether they should go for the latest iPhone or Galaxy smartphone. Despite the weakness of Windows Phone as a platform when compared to iOS and Android, over the past two years Nokia has managed to come up with a decent package of hardware, software and services to make up for the missing bits.

If the Lumia 1020′s camera does perform as claimed (it did during my brief experience with the smartphone), it would be a pretty compelling offering. 

Think about it, the Lumia 1020 would have the best camera performance combined with a music store that offers unlimited tracks to download for free and it also has one of the best offline navigation software on any smartphone. While Nokia’s Lumia smartphones were already doing well in the entry and mid-level segments, the Lumia 1020 could be the key to success in the high-end segment, which was missing so far.