By Tom McGregor,Special to Sina English

Before the emergence of Apple’s iPhone and Samsung galaxy phones, Nokia, a Finnish company, dominated the global smart phones market. Yet, the corporation had lost its market share in the sector.

Meanwhile, China Mobile, the world’s largest mobile operator, had failed to take advantage of the iPhone craze, as its main rival, China Unicom, acted as the main service provider for Apple in China’s mainland.

“For reference, China Unicom is pre-selling the 16GB iPhone 5 for 5,288 yuan (US $850) and it has 61 million 3G subscribers,” as reported by CNET. “China Unicom has already surpassed 100,000 pre-orders for a phone that won’t be available until December14.”

Nokia wants to take a bite out of Apple’s smart phone action, but it still has a long way to go. Nevertheless, its partnership with China Mobile could be a game changing moment.

“China mobile, which has more than 700 million subscribers, but no contract to sell iPhonese, will start selling a version of Nokia’s flagship Lumia 920 smart phone in the world’s largest mobile market,” according to CNET.

The announcement appears gave a big boost of holiday cheer for Nokia shareholders, since its shares on the Helsinki Bourse had surged to over 8 percent shortly after the deal was disclosed on Wednesday.

Stock analysts, who watch Nokia, see bright prospects. “It is not a surprise, but it still means a giant opportunity for Nokia, may be one of the best opportunities for its smart phones right now,” Nordea Markets analyst Sami Sakarmies told Reuters. “This market has a lot of piled up demand for high-end smart phones.”

Perhaps that’s true, but consider the pros and cons to determine if Nokia could wage a winning bid to attract more smart phone customers in the country.

Many say iPhones are much too expensive for Chinese customers, where the country’s GDP per capita income level is far below the US. Although many Chinese have purchased iPhones, many customers in China earn high salaries or they come from middle class or wealthy families.

Samsung Galaxy smart phones rank as the most popular smart phone for the domestic market. Samsung offers nearly all the same functions you could get in an iPhone, but at a much lower price. iPhones are not compatible with Microsoft Windows 8 program.

However, “the (Nokia) will be available for order in the Chinese market by the end of the year at a retail price of 4,599 yuan (740),” according to Reuters.

Apple will introduce its iPhone 5 to Chinese customers a few weeks before Nokia can offer the Lumia 920 up for sale in the country. Despite high sales prices for Apple products, the brand inspires many Chinese to purchase its devices.

Nokia’s brand does not command such strong brand loyalty worldwide and the price for a Lumia 920 seems expensive.

But Reuters reports, “also on Wednesday, Nokia unveiled the Lumia 620, its cheapest Windows 8 smart phone. It will be priced at $249 and so on sale, at first Asia. Analysts saw the launch as another reason for the upbeat shares reaction.”

Experts have good reason to applaud the Lumia 620, since it might become the most competitive smart phone offered by Nokia. Many Chinese usually look for the best deals.

Nokia will have an added advantage of tapping into China Mobile’s service network, which is not an option for iPhones users. Yet, Reuters points to other potential problems.

“The Lumia 620 doesn’t pack all the high-end hardware features that the more expensive Lumia 820 and Lumia 920 offers, such as Carl Zeiss’ camera lenses and wireless charging capability. The Lumia 620 has a camera with a five-pixel sensor – compared with 8.7 mega pixels for the 920 – and runs a slower processor. It has less internal memory than the other Lumias.”

Sounds like the Lumia 620 would be considered a low-end smart phone. Accordingly, will Chinese customers want to buy a Lumia 620? Well, we really won’t know the answer until early next year.

Nonetheless many telecommunications analysts believe that Nokia’s deal with China Mobile could generate more substantial revenues and profits for both corporations. Let’s see if these optimistic forecasts will be proven correct.