Queries for 'Lumia' outpace 'Windows Phone' showing strong brand awareness for Nokia

By Daniel Rubino
last updated

The Nokia Lumia 800: Trend setter

We’ve had discussions before, sometimes heated, about what should be the proper name for Windows Phone and whether it’s catchy, unique enough or even hampered by the “Windows” name. But one thing is for sure, Nokia seems to have a hit with the 'Lumia' brand.

Using Google’s Trends function to compare searches for 'Windows Phones' against 'Lumia' you get an interesting result. Since about November 2011, 'Lumia' has been searched for much more often than 'Windows Phone' which is curious only because Nokia’s handsets are a subset of Windows Phone, yet they’re clearly leading in terms of brand awareness and consumer curiosity.

Last 12 months of Google searches for 'Lumia' vs 'Windows Phone' vs 'Windows Mobile'

Going further, looking at “news reference volume” which details how often Lumia is cited in the media, we can see that although it trails Windows Phone, it often follows the same pattern of interest and is near the same level.

Perhaps just as interesting is if you compare ‘Windows Mobile’ versus ‘Windows Phone’ you can see a slow downward trend for the former but it still trends quite high. That reinforces the belief that many are still confusing the two brands and Microsoft still has a naming problem, which is slowly being overcome. 

There should be little doubt that Nokia with their branding and ability to make headlines has raised awareness a lot for Microsoft’s mobile OS, so much so that they’re in fact leading the interest, often getting ahead of “Windows Phone” itself. That’s impressive work and is a good sign that Nokia is resonating with users out there and backs up what many of us have been saying, which is Nokia is the key to Windows Phone success now and in the future.

Source: Google Trends; via TNW; Thanks, piaqt, for the heads up

Daniel Rubino
Daniel Rubino
Editor-in-chief

Daniel Rubino is the Editor-in-chief of Windows Central, head reviewer, podcast co-host, and analyst. He has been here covering Microsoft since 2007 when this site was called WMExperts (and later Windows Phone Central). His interests include Windows, Microsoft Surface, laptops, next-gen computing, and for some reason, watches. Before all this tech stuff, he worked on a Ph.D. in linguistics and ran the projectors at movie theaters, which has done absolutely nothing for his career.

46 Comments
  • Lol
  • Man, honestly I'm sick of my extremely buggy, shitty hardware Lumia 900. I'm definitely going HTC for WP8. Besides, I'll just sideload the exclusive Nokia apps.
  • Hopefully HTC does better on the hardware side this time around. I like my gunmetal/black hd7 but more choices and better build strength would be nice. The battery cover isn't great, the battery is low capacity, and the buttons are sometimes hard to push (camera).
  • Nokia definitely didn't put their best foot forward with the Lumia 900, that's for sure. I don't totally hate the hardware - the screen is beautiful and I really like the unibody polycarbonate (plastic) body - but the camera is abysmal and the screen responsiveness is poor relative to other WP7 devices. My fiancée's Evo 4G LTE, on the other hand, has top-notch hardware on every respect. I'd love a WP8 device with that hardware.
  • Screen responsiveness. Lol what.
  • The screen being raised over the 800 was a design flaw I noticed early on in pics. Proof is that is the only spot showing damage on my Lumia. Also still having random radio issues that only get fixed with a toggle of airplane mode. Disappointed with this purchase.
  • Haven't had any of those issues  I have a red gel case on my 900 which makes it look  alot like the Nokia windows 8 Phone render which I like a lot.  I am not sdisappointed im my purchase at all.  Sorry you have had issues.
  • Dude, some people always complain. 
    Crows are black everywhere. 
     
    PS: These comments were for people who are complaining for minor issues. 
  • Complaining about complainers isn't any better. The squeaky wheel gets the oil - if you don't complain then nothing will change. Okay, perhaps they should be complaining to Nokia but it's actually useful to hear different experiences with products - it's good to be aware of issues (as my next purchase may be a WP8 Nokia) and to know that it's not all sunshine & lollipops, as the marketing & reviews would have us believe.
  • never crossed your mind to exchange it?
  • Yeah, I exchanged mine and a lot of little issues disappeared.  The WiFi bug is gone, for instance.  Still, the fact that you're basically required to exchange the Lumia 900 to get a fully-functional, bug-free unit after the "Beta Test is Over" ad campaign is painfully (not deliciously) ironic.
  • Sell the experience not the os. Samsung sell the Galaxy, Apple the iPhone not android and ios. Nokia knows how its done too. I've always thought that Windows Phone should be wpOs. Unfortunately the Windows brand has taken a beating over the years.
  • Unfortunately, with naming it wpOs trolls will have a fun time calling it windows 'pos'.
  • Lmao, yea that wouldn't be good.
  • I think we have all heard windoze, so its always difficult coming up with a name that can't be misappropriated..
  • It's unfortunate that sales figures still remain disappointing.
  • Said it many times. For most people "Windows" is synonymous with work, difficult, frustrating, Buggy, unreliable and crappy OS that doesn't work. Most of us have long memories of being cheated by MSoft on Windows Me and Windows Vista. See the problem, is the use of "Windows" on everything.
    Blamer et all act like their sins don't follow them, but they do, and they need to ditch the "Windows" brand for non-enterprise users asap.
    That have a winner in "Surface" and they should run with it, quickly. " I have a Surface phone" sounds very cool! :-)
  • tyeah that surface looks sweet. Like the name
  • In offices it would be devices that break the os. Either way, XP was great. Vista was better but was nanny annoying and 7 is phenomenal. The design of 8 and phone could have gotten a new name just yo test the waters. Do a Nintendo third pillar until it sell like hotcakes then say that was the plan all along.
  • It's a matter of opinion though. Windows ME was a PoS, but a vast majority of ppl stayed with 98 SE until XP. Quite a few used 2000 in between. I'd heard horror stories about Vista and avoided it for a long time. Eventually my workplace got it for all their PC's and I was pleasantly surprised by all the improvements. UAC was a pain, but I turned it off after a couple of hours. I've been using it happily since then (4-5 years). Windows 7 is even better. I hated MS products in the 90's and dabbled with Linux (no way I'd ever go near crappy MacOS) but XP and Xbox brought me back :P
    But anyway, you certainly can't say "most people" have negative connotations with Windows or MS, as it simply isn't true.
  • Yeah. He can still say it. You're in the minority. Microsoft has the same image as Republicans although misguided and unwarranted to some degree. All stereotypes have some degree of truth and fiction
  • My point was in reference to "most people" having a negative view of Windows. His statement is easily falsified... "Most people" would indicate a vast majority, around 80. If I asked 10 random people if they thought Windows was "frustrating, buggy, unreliable, crappy etc" you would be lucky to get more than 2-3 (at most) agreeing. With Windows enjoying something like 90% marketshare, you could easily say "90% of computer users prefer Windows over Mac". If I surveyed people at an Apple event you could say "most people prefer Mac". Anyway, it's nonsense to give blanket statements without any actual evidence. I can't comment on your reference to US political parties as I'm not American.
  • Awesome post schul.
  • And im a libertarian
  • I agree it's a name thing.
    I do a lot of Technical support and I can't tell you how many times I had to explain the difference between Windows and Office.
    It's no wonder consumers get confused (ok perhaps not the technie ones - but most of them are not buying Windows Phone anyway). 
    To a 'normal' phone buyer - Windows mobile / Windows Phone / WP7 / WP8 / Nokia / Lumia it's all too confusing - Just call it 'Microsoft Phone' and they'll immediately know what it is!
  • Calling it Microsoft name is even worse than saying Windows phone. 
    Microsoft as a brand itself is stained too badly. 
    I bet, if they say Nokia Phone(ofcz they can't practically), that will get more attention around the world than any name Microsoft comes up with. That's the strength of Nokia, even though it is dying.(I hope it will rise back). 
    When it comes to mobiles, no one can beat the branding of Apple and Nokia. Hence Nokia must stay alive to fight this war. 
     
     
     
  • Maybe they should rename everything based around metro. Windows RT should be called Windows Metro, Windows Phone should be called Metro Mobile and the next Xbox should be called Xbox Metro.
  • Now that windows 8 is Metro too. I like Windows Mobile even more. It's more than a phone.
  • Windows Phone makes the most sense because (starting with WP8) it will literally be Windows... on a phone.
  • Persdonally I think it should be Windows 8 Phone or WP8
  • Calls vs. everything else. They are not phones any more and we can't let the carriers control our devices because they classify it as a phone.
  • Very good!
  • Not sure about lumia 800 and 900, but my 710 (only one I can get on my carrier) is an absolute workhorse. Coming from HTC Diamond, then few androids HTC to HTC Surround, I will never spend another dime on those crappy HTC. Specs my ass if the phone is garbage after few months. For the price u pay for 710, it's amazing how good the phone is.
  • My HD2 & Radar are still top notch. Never had a problem or issue with Radar. And only had a bad digitizer after 2 years on my HD2. Fixed it & it's back to being my favorite phone.
  • I agree, the 710 is just amazing. But I have an HTC Titan and while HTC makes some rather.. odd design choices, the screen and the build quality is amazing. The HTC Titan 2 looks like Android garbage. I think HTC are shooting themselves in the foot with these odd designs. Samsung has some really neat designs that they tend to ruin on purpose and Nokia also have these weird designs. It's odd how the Lumia 800 can look so bad, yet the 900 looks worse. I'm talking about the shape and the glass. They could've made an amazing phone by using on of the best designs, yet they ruined it.
  • Strong brand awareness for Lumia, or weak brand awareness for Windows Phone?
  • People buy phones not operating systems.
  • HTC HEAAAAAAAAAAA!
  • I've had a few (non geek) people that tested out the Lumia who were quite surprised that my "Windows Phone" (HD7) was the same. I haven't seen any mention of the OS in Lumia adverts, and non-technical people often don't care.
  • Samsung is still the best software WP wise put that with some extra Nokia software and hardware and u got a phone that would wipe out all others
  • Im going to settle the naming one and for all.  It shall now be know as
     
    "The Metro Phone"
  • I bet people also don't look for iOS, nor Android they look for iPhone and Samsung S3. All that nonsense that MS brand is not "cool" is paradoxically totally uncool and very 90s.
  • Windows Phone is catchy and sounds good so drop it. Unless you want a wPhone..
  • How about the M-Phone, for Metro and Microsoft
  • Is this really a surprise? The lumias came out in November overseas so Im sure from that moment on, people everywhere were searching "lumia" to get the latest news on when they were going to be released elsewhere(like the US). This really isn't saying anything about brand awareness because MS hasn't pushed these phones like they did back in 2010. Once windows 8 launches, you'll see just how well "windows" is going to sell, especially when they can finally see the connection. Does Windows 7 look anything like metro? No one is getting it right now...but they will..and MS knows its best to wait until they do to fully advertise...
  • wpOs they'd have a field day with the "pos" part. 
    Steve Jobs used to poke fun at Win CE when it first came out.
    Win CE = Wince. 
    LOL I have to agree with him, how could they have missed that? LOL