Phone shops across Europe didn't spend Christmas fighting off the queues for Nokia's Lumia devices.

The big European carriers haven't been impressed either, at least that's according to Reuters.

It points to the range being overpriced, lacking innovation, and hit by early glitches in battery life and software. Some even say there's not been enough marketing support for the devices - something that's hard to believe walking down any UK high street. 

No Lumia love

"Nokia have given themselves a double challenge: to restore their credibility in terms of making hardware smartphones and succeed with the Microsoft Windows operating system, which lags in the market," one executive told Reuters.

"No one comes into the store and asks for a Windows Phone. If the Lumia with the same hardware came with Android in it and not Windows, it would be much easier to sell."

With the firm's flagship Windows Phone device – the Lumia 900 – having only launched in the US on 9 April and due to hit the UK on 27 April, series wide sales have been solid if unspectacular to date.

Indeed, Nokia's recent dire financial forecast presented Lumia as the light at the end of the tunnel, with quarterly sales hitting the 2 million mark.

The Reuters report also flies in the face of stats published by Kantar WorldPanel in February that suggested Nokia's Lumia 800 was already a best seller in both Germany and Austria.

[source: Reuters]