Nokia hopes its comeback story comes into focus with a little help from its 41-megapixel camera-packing Lumia 1020.The former Finnish mobile devices giant was at it again on Thursday with the debut of its latest smartphone, which rocks the souped-up zoom-lens camera that impressed critics a year ago at Mobile World Congress. For some, this is the real PureView camera that should have been bolted on to last year’s Lumia 920 flagship phone.Even as the Lumia 1020 comes packed to the gills with features and advanced hardware, it’s unclear whether this will be the smartphone to finally reverse Nokia’s fortunes. Its continued struggles despite a drastically improved line-up of products underscore the broader difficulties facing all of the vendors in getting support from carriers and interest from consumers. More specifically, there remains a lot of work to revitalize Nokia’s brand and educate consumers on Windows Phone.Still, the Lumia 1020 launch represents a big moment for Nokia and Microsoft, which both desperately need a home run for the Windows Phone platform. For Nokia, the Lumia 1020 is testament that its innovation streak is alive and kicking, and a successful launch would prove its relevancy among smartphone vendors.“The device is about re-establishing Nokia as an innovator in the devices market,” said Gartner analyst Carolina Milanesi.Microsoft, meanwhile, is more dependent than ever on Nokia’s success with other key partners such as Samsung and HTC showing only marginal interest in the Windows Phone operating system as they focus on their Android products.However, this isn’t likely a make-or-break moment for either company, even in the United States. Over the past year and a half, Nokia and Microsoft have gone through the launch of a few key products, from the debut of flagship Lumia 800, to the first U.S. Nokia phone in the Lumia 900, and the low-light camera-packing Lumia 920.
