Nokia Kicks Off U.S. Campaign With Low-Priced Hardware, Fresh Apps

The Nokia Lumia 900 wowed at CES 2012. Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired

Nokia is betting it all on Microsoft's Windows Phone OS. The company has a shot at outpacing BlackBerry as the third leading smartphone OS. So now, all eyes are on Nokia as it begins its stateside device roll-out. And the company is dropping its flagship device with a bang.

AT&T confirmed on Monday it will sell the Lumia 900 smartphone for a paltry $100 beginning April 8. That's a bargain-basement price for such a high-end LTE handset, with specs like a 4.3-inch AMOLED display and an 8-megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics.

Thus far, the Windows-flavored smartphone platform has made little headway in grabbing market share against iOS and Android: As of late March, Windows Phone hovers around two percent share in the market, potentially bolstered (slightly) in recent months in the U.S. by the entrance of the budget-friendly Nokia Lumia 710. The impending launch of the Nokia Lumia 900 could signal a serious make-or-break push to get Windows Phones into the hands of consumers. And if the Lumia 900 is a success with consumers, Windows Phone could finally find a foothold against its older mobile OS competitors.

"There is a market for a third operating system," Gartner analyst Hugues de la Vergne told Wired. "Historically, RIM has been that third vendor, but because of the problems they've had, it's opened up the door for Microsoft and Nokia. It really is critical that this product be accepted well."

The Lumia 900′s price-point is just the beginning. When the Lumia 800 launched in the U.S., it lacked one important thing: A carrier subsidy. It landed as a $900 bundle destined for unfortunate obscurity. The 900 appears to have skirted this problem thanks to a lower wholesale price and subsidies from AT&T, which brings its retail costs down to a much more palatable level.

Being 4G LTE doesn't hurt either, NPD principal analyst Ross Rubin said: "Supporting LTE is key to helping to attract carrier interest. They can maximize revenue from consumers that are the most aggressive data consumers."

Nokia has also reportedly paid a hefty sum of $25 million for AT&T employees to use the 900 as their company-issued free handset, a move that should aid visibility and reduce ignorance about the Windows Phone OS among those actually peddling the products.

But a smartphone platform is nothing without its apps.

"Since the debut, Microsoft has been pretty aggressive about trying to court developers to narrow the application gap with Android and iOS," Rubin told Wired. Continuing this trend, Microsoft and Nokia each pledged to invest up to nine million Euros to a Finnish app program called AppCampus in order to boost Windows Phone app development. AppCampus, based at Aalto University, will focus on building products for Nokia's software platforms: Windows Phone, Symbian, and the feature phone Series 40.

"Here in Finland, there's a huge community to support fellow developers if they run into problems," Teemu Tapanila, the Chairman of Windows Phone Aalto developer network, told Wired. Tapanila says app developers are starting to flock to the platform because the tools are easy to get started with, and you have the potential to reach a huge combined desktop and mobile user base in the not-too-distant future. "The ecosystem is going to evolve a lot when Microsoft releases Windows 8. Then Microsoft will finally support the full range of devices that people are using."

Unfortunately, Windows 8 is still a long ways away. Microsoft, Nokia and Windows Phone need a hit today.

"This is Windows Phone's biggest opportunity before we see BlackBerry 10 products from RIM," de la Vergne said. "RIM has the advantage of a larger embedded user base. Microsoft and Nokia have got to get it right with this product."

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated the percent share of Windows Phone in the smartphone market.

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Original Page: http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2012/03/lumia-900-wp-outlook/

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Derik Chan