Microsoft's Windows Phone operating system is about to make a big splash in the U.S., and in an inexpensive way.
AT&T will offer the Nokia Lumia 900 – the first Windows Phone device compatible with 4G LTE networks – for a paltry $100 if you sign up for a new, two-year service agreement. Multiple sources are reporting a March 18 release date. The "announcement" was part of an AT&T device roadmap released Wednesday by tech site BGR. And CNET "confirmed" it, if you will, citing "sources with knowledge of the launch plans," even though neither AT&T nor Nokia has commented publicly just yet.
The $100 price tag would essentially make it the cheapest new LTE smartphone from a major manufacturer – $200 less than many recent Android releases. That also would be $100 cheaper than the least expensive iPhone 4S (keeping in mind, of course, that the iPhone is not yet LTE-compatible).
At the end of 2011, Windows Phone held less than 2 percent of the smartphone market, but a new partnership between Microsoft and Nokia, announced last year, is set to change all of that, and possibly in a hurry. Some analysts predict Microsoft's operating system could be second only to Android in sales as early as 2015.
T-Mobile is selling the just-released Lumia 710 for just $49. And even though that's a non-LTE, more entry-level device, it would seem that Nokia plans to be competitive in price going forward.
The Lumia 900, which is being marketed as a smartphone for both business and the general consumer, sports a pair of cameras; has a 4.3-inch display; a 1.4GHz processor; and 16GB of internal memory.
