The new WP Nokia phone hit the UK almost a week ago and already there is controversy surrounding the initial success of the handset.

So…How is its future looking?

Rosier than rosy, according to Nokia which stated the Lumia 800 is “destined to be a huge hit” on the day of its UK launch.

Ray Haddow, Nokia spokesman had this to say: “The level of pre-orders, as well as reaction in shops today, lead us to be very positive about the launch of the Nokia Lumia 800.

“The public have had hands on in many retail stores over the past week and were in store in abundance today, not only trying out this amazing device, but signing up for some of the great deals available. In addition, we’ve had lots of people saying that they intend to switch to the Nokia Lumia 800 at their next upgrade.”

And Orange stated that pre-orders are higher than any other Nokia phone that’s gone before this one.

As a result, expectations are certainly high for Nokia’s first Windows-based handset.

But six days after the Nokia 800 was released in the UK, how are things looking?

Not good, it seems.

Unlike the promising potential of the Lumia 800, painted in particular by Nokia, reports are that sales for the smartphone have been “disappointing” so far.

If Pacific Crest analyst James Faucette is right, the first shipments have been lower than predicted and Nokia may have in fact sold less than 500,000 phones to customers – a quarter of the company’s target.

Faucette said: “We believe that shipments of Nokia’s new Windows Phone 7 products have been lower than we had previously anticipated. We had expected that the company could ship as many as 2 million units into the six targeted markets for the holidays; however, we now believe that those shipments are likely to be less than 1 million for the quarter.”

Oh dear.

And Forbes had further worrying news, having previously written there were “early signs of trouble”. The interest on Google is about the equivalent as with the Nokia N8, not good considering one’s brand new and the other’s a year old.

Pierre Ferragu, Bernstein Research analyst, pointed out a few reasons for this, in a research note. The Nokia Lumia 800 is not competitively priced and it is thought “rather unlikely that Windows can gain critical mass against Android and iOS”, for example.

Who’s to be believed?

Of course, we’ll have to wait for the actual sales figures to be released before we can know for definite how well the Lumia 800 is performing.

But one thing’s for sure – Nokia can’t afford for this phone to fail.

Editor’s Note: Author is Caroline Dalzell  -  a professional writer and editor with over 10 years’ experience of writing for business and pleasure. She writes on various topics, specialising in mobile technology and social media.