Nokia signs $320mln deal with China’s 360buy.com

PanARMENIAN.Net - Nokia has signed an agreement with Chinese ecommerce site 360buy.com to sell up to $320 million (RMB 2 billion) worth of phones next year in a bid to reassert itself in the country, The Next Web reports.

The cooperation means 360Buy is now an officially licensed Nokia vendor, and it has already begun pre-sales for the Lumia 920 and 920T. At $738 (RMB 4,599), the device lands at the high-end of the market, though it’s still cheaper than the iPhone 5, which retails for $849 (RMB 5,288).

360Buy is also partnering with Qihoo 360 and Nokia for the release of the Nokia 2050.

For years, Nokia enjoyed a strong lead in China, but sales in the country have fallen apart as Android, and to a lesser extent the iPhone, have taken over.

In the third quarter of 2010, the company sold 20.2 million handsets in the Greater China region. During the same period in 2011, sales fell 21 percent to 15.9 million. In Q3 2012, Nokia managed just 5.8 million mobile device sales in Greater China, a precipitous drop of 64 percent year-over-year.

By comparison, Apple recently announced it had sold over 2 million iPhones in mainland China in just two days with last week’s launch of the iPhone 5. Nokia says it sold 2.9 million Lumia devices – globally – last quarter.