AT&T Inc. and Nokia Corp. are teaming up in the U.S. to debut the Nokia Lumia 900, a smartphone that supports 4G LTE connectivity and is based on Microsoft Corp.'s Windows Phone software.
As Nokia's third Lumia smartphone and the very first 4G LTE Windows phone in the U.S., AT&T will exclusively carry the device in the coming months, the companies announced this week at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
Finland-based Nokia, the world's largest handset maker, is hoping that the Lumia 900 will help reinvigorate its position in the smartphone market, where it has been losing global share to the likes of Apple's iPhone and phones that run on Google's Android software. In the United States, Microsoft's platform for handsets and Nokia both control just a tiny sliver of the smartphone market, figures from comScore, Inc. show. Nokia and Microsoft are banking on their strategic alliance announced last year and partnerships with the likes of AT&T to boost their appeal and smartphone sales.
"The Nokia Lumia 900 is designed specifically with the US in mind and the announcement of this collaboration with AT&T, in addition to other recent announcements, signifies a new dawn for Nokia in the US," Nokia Americas President Chris Weber declared in a statement.
In related news, AT&T announced yesterday that it will carry the HTC TITAN II, a Windows Phone that features a 4.7-inch display and AT&T's largest-ever 16-megapixel camera with a dedicated image processor and a back-illuminated sensor for low light. AT&T, the second-largest U.S. mobile operator, plans to carry the device in the coming months at its company-owned stores and online.
