CES: Nokia stands out in LTE superphone crowd
Finnish vendor will be "back in a big way" says AT&T, as it launches Lumia 900 as a 4G exclusive
Published: 10 January, 2012
READ MORE: US | Nokia | AT&T | Handset | LTE | Windows Phone
Analysts may be salivating over talk of Microsoft and Nokia executives meeting to discuss a merger this week, but the two firms already have plenty of reasons to be getting together in Las Vegas - namely to attempt a breakthrough in the US smartphone market which is essential to both their fortunes. Whether or not they end up as one company down the road, their fortunes are inextricably entwined in the mobile world now, and initially, those fortunes will rely on Nokia's first LTE smartphone, the Lumia 900.
This was unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show by Nokia CEO Stephen Elop himself, indicating the importance of this product for a company which, even in the days when it utterly dominated the handset space, never rose much above the parapet in north America. That was down to a variety of factors, including Nokia's unwillingness to create devices to operators' specifications, unlike its then-deadly (and locally based) rival Motorola. The Finn has certainly got over that problem, setting up design labs close to key carrier locations even before it threw its lot in with Microsoft and WP7. And the Lumia 900 is its first smartphone entirely designed for the US market, and specifically for AT&T.
It will form one of the centrepieces of an LTE device push by the carrier in the first half of 2012, as it expands its 4G network and chases after Verizon. Until Apple supports LTE - possibly not until the fall - the two operators are mainly relying on Android superphones to attract consumers to their new networks, but AT&T has also been a vocal supporter of WP7 since its launch last year. It will add Lumia 900, as well as the first LTE/WP7 offering from Windows handset leader HTC, to its portfolio. This recreates something of the old Nokia-Motorola stand-off, as Motorola remains one of the most loyal allies in Verizon's 4G attack, announcing its latest Droid model at CES.
The Lumia 900 has all the hallmarks of the rival superphones from the Android camp (except the full app store), including a 4.3-inch AMOLED screen and gigahertz processor. It also has some more Nokia-specific features, such as a very advanced camera with trademark Carl Zeiss optics and 28mm focal length, plus the durable hardware for which the Finnish firm is well known - the casing is made of polycarbonate, in which Nokia said it had special skills after using the material for two decades.
Ralph de la Vega, CEO of AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets, appeared on-stage to support the new phone but would not give availability or pricing details. "Nokia is going to be back in the US in a very big way," was all he would say.
However, Elop said the pricing would be very competitive, addressing critics who said the original Lumia models, launched in Europe last fall, were overpriced. "As relates to pricing, our intention is to enter the US market with the Lumia 900 aggressively," the CEO said.
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