Fresh indicators hint that Nokia’s Lumia 800 is selling well in Europe

If you read TNW with any regularity, you know that we spend a nearly unconscionable amount of time trying to figure out which smartphones sell the best, and how many total units they are moving. This is often a game of shadows, with us pulling together every indicator that we can to craft a clear picture.

Today we have a few new data points from one of my ancestral homes, Denmark, that help us better understand how Nokia’s Lumia 800 smartphone is selling in Europe. According to collation reported in WMPowerUser, several carriers in the country, which is admittedly smaller than West Virginia, are seeing strong sales of the phone. The Lumia 800 was recently released in Kongeriget Danmark.

According to TDC, the country’s largest carrier:

We have since Friday experienced the same demand, as shown by the introduction of the iPhone 4S. Lumia 800 has sold more than three times as much as number two on our sales charts

According to Telia:

Lumia 800 sales [are] not comparable with the iPhone 4S, but it mixes with the mobiles that sell best on the market currently, it has also sold better than the N8 and N9 at launch, and it also sells better than other manufacturers do when there’s a new product.

In one case, the Lumia 800 is matching the iPhone 4S, and in the other it is on par with every top-selling handset that is not the iPhone 4S. To even rival Apple’s current smartphone is impressive, given that the Lumia handset is very new to the market, and lacks the brand strenghth of its competition; Apple’s line of iPhones is not only excellent, it is very dependable, with its quality and feature set only improving.

Until Nokia releases official numbers, we are left with such anecdotal evidence. However, from this, we can see that at a minimum the Lumia line is not a flop. How much of a long-term success it will be, if any, remains an open question.