Despite Microsoft’s support, Nokia has a mountain to climb if its latest venture into the smartphone market – the Lumia 800 – is to survive in the demanding world of smartphone innovation and sales.

So says mobile phone price comparison site MobilesPlease, whose figures show that initial sales of the device have been disappointing. In November 2011, the Nokia Lumia 800 black enjoyed just as 0.17 per cent share of new handset sales, according to the MobilePlease figures, leaving it in 9th place, behind the Samsung Galaxy S II (16.1 per cent); iPhone 4 16GB black (10.2 per cent); iPhone 4S 16GB black (5.5 per cent); BlackBerry Bold Touch 9900 (3.8 per cent); iPhone 3GS 8GB (3 per cent); BlackBerry Curve 3G 9300 (2.5 per cent); HTC Sensation (2.2 per cent); and the Apple iPhone 4S 16GB white (2 per cent).

MobilePlease’s stats come from a sample of just over 5,377 handset sales from over 100 independent sites delivering mobile phone sales to a dozen leading UK mobile phone retailers and networks, including Carphone Warehouse, Phones 4U and the networks themselves.

“While 5,000 sales is less than 5 per cent of the overall sales in the UK, we think that it is still a statistically robust figure, especially as it comes from a number of different retailers,” says MobilePlease marketing manager, Dave Khan.

Critics have pointed to a range of difficulties experienced by the Lumia, including a very limited battery life, poor software functionality and a high retail price. MobilePlease believes there may be one ray of light for the Lumia, however. The sales statistics are a sample and are based on consumer sales. Some experts predict that given Microsoft’s reputation in enterprise environments, the phone (which is heavily wedded to Microsoft) might have penetrated the business market with more success. With the Apple and Android app marketplaces being predominately geared towards consumer apps it could be that Microsofts Windows Phone marketplace starts to grow into the de facto platform for business users and that Nokia help them to do this.
“As far as December 2011 is concerned, the indications are that the Nokia Lumia 800 has improved its sales performance by doubling its market share, but according to sample statistics it still stands at below 1 per cent, which must be short of where Nokia would probably like to see it,” says Khan. “Given its sluggish start, it is far from clear whether the Nokia Lumia 800 has what it takes to revive the Nokia brand and return the sleeping giant to anything like it’s past dominance.”

You can see the full ranking here.