The Nokia Lumia 900 is still available only in North America. Rogers launched it on April 9 in Canada, a day before AT&T started offering the phone to its consumers. Two weeks later the white option joined them but unfortunately, the latter and the cyan models went out of stock too quickly. This disappointed people but no one can...

Information was leaked right from the Microsoft office in the USA. According to one of the Chinese forums, WP8 is being tested on Nokia phones. The Apollo update is being tested not only on Nokia’s current but also future phones. The tipster says there is also a-yet-to-be-unveiled Nokia phone involved in the experiment. One of the current...

Nokia announced about its cooperation with Microsoft back in February, 2011. People obviously got interested in the design of the phones, and to quench their interest the company posted a photo picturing a few Windows Phone-packed devices. Notably, when the manufacturer unveiled its first Lumia series smartphone in the housing of the...

The cooperation between Nokia and Microsoft is getting evolved. If previously it was primarily based on the operating system, now the cooperation tends to get extended with map application. As we all know Microsoft uses Bing maps, while Nokia handsets use Nokia Maps.

And now these two giants have plans to offer a single design for the two apps. Nokia Maps will serve as a basis product and some of Bing features will be added to these applications. The main change will concern the map design: the maps will appear in a more simplified version making the visibility and readability the main emphasizes of the feature.

In addition, both apps will be based on Nokia Pure font and will use a smarter choosing system, which will give a list of places that should be showed for a specific location.

As for Microsoft’s Bing maps, they will also benefit from Nokia Maps by extending their coverage. NavTeq as well will serve as a coverage extension source.

At first the changes will be available only for the web versions of Nokia Maps and Bing Maps, but apparently, sometime soon the updates will be transferred to Nokia Drive.

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The Nokia Lumia 800 is a bestseller at Orange (Austria), at Three (UK) and got sold out in Ireland only within a week. In the UK the device was greatly promoted due to the free give away of Xbox 360. As a result, the device won the 2.2 % in the local market. Though this result might not be that impressive, still the fact that Windows Phone is getting much attention in the European market is promising.

This year we are looking forward to the launch of two important novelties connected with the Windows Phone. The first is surely the long-expected launch of the Nokia Lumia 900 in mid-March. The Lumia 900 will be a high-end device coming with the most popular features so far available with WP Mango handsets.

The second novelty will be the Windows Phone 8 OS also known as Windows Phone Apollo. This version of OS will bring in a large list of improvements. It will finally allow having more apps, support for microSD cards, multi-core processors  and front-facing cameras.

Hopefully after the launch of these two, this OS will get more attention also in the US territory as here the market is basically shared between iOS and Android. Let’s see whether it will be able to compete with these two or not.

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We previously announced Microsoft stores in the US would launch the Nokia Lumia 800 with a bunch of accessories on February 14. Valentine’s Day passed but we didn’t see the unlocked device in stores. However, you have no reason to get upset as the Lumia 800 is currently available at Microsoft stores with the promised accessories and … for a round sum.

Microsoft is now getting orders for the unlocked Nokia Lumia 800, which will come with a Nokia Play 360 Bluetooth speaker and Nokia Purity HD headphones. All you have to do is pay $899.99 and pick it. Note that it’s the accessories coming with it that make it cost this much.

We recently talked about the branding problems Nokia faces in the US. What I wonder about is why Nokia doesn’t change anything. I mean the existence of such a problem is obvious, and instead of giving US consumers a chance to get its handsets more easily, the company complicates the situation bringing the Lumia 800 to the States via only 16 stores.

I understand the company has not prepared this smartphone for the US, and it will launch the Lumia 900 LTE with AT&T branding, but on the other hand people want to buy this awesome smartphone, but have no chance.

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A couple of days ago I read an article in which the author introduced a fragment from Twitter after T-Mobile and Nokia aired a commercial for the T-Mobile Nokia Lumia 710 at Grammy Awards. As a true Nokia fan who knows what’s going on inside the company it made me upset. But I can’t say the fragment of that conversation has no piece of truth.

As you see from the screenshot US consumers have forgotten Nokia brand and have no notion of the huge campaign it has begun jointly with Microsoft. What’s even worse, they are not aware of the Lumia 800 and the Lumia 900, which is very powerful and sports all features the same users dream about. Only one term called “marketing” is responsible for this situation. Apple and Google have been proclaiming for many years there is no other handset besides the iPhone and Android-powered handsets. But I know many owners of these smartphones who are dissatisfied with their handsets, while the lack of information about such brands as Nokia makes it impossible to show there are other brands offering other cool handsets.

However, Nokia and Microsoft are spending a huge amount of money to open US consumers’ eyes, and I deeply believe they will succeed. Until then we have to describe Nokia as a loser in the States, which is not fair considering that the smartphones of this manufacturer exceed the handsets of other companies in many aspects.

We know much about the third Nokia Windows Phone handset, but not everything. For example, we know the Lumia 900 will be firstly released in the US via AT&T; it will support the carrier’s LTE network and be the first Windows Phone 7.5 Mango-flavored handset working on this network; it will sport a 4.3-inch AMOLED touchscreen with Gorilla Glass and Clear Black technologies; there is also an 8MP camera with Carl Zeiss optics, autofocus and dual-LED flash.

What we don’t know is when the Lumia 900, one of Nokia’s newest gadgets will see light and what price the carrier will require for it (though according to rumors, it will be launched on March 18 at a price tag of $99.99). The aforementioned provisions give us a good reason to wish to get our hands on this device. That’s why we were so happy to hear the Lumia 900 can be pre-ordered at Microsoft’s stores. Unfortunately, Microsoft has withdrawn this offer.

The attempts to find out “why?” faced silence or an avoiding answer like “those who are interested should stay tuned to the Microsoft Store Facebook Page.”

On the other hand, we must remain devoted to Nokia and Microsoft as sources have told The Verge Nokia will soon unveil the pricing and the launch date. But honestly, I don’t get how this could happen, as when we yesterday learned the white version of the Nokia Lumia 900 is available for pre-order too, we believed the rumored launch date and pricing are real.

Though the Nokia Lumia 900 is only the third Windows Phone-powered smartphone of the company, no one will deny it’s the most talked. Why? Because the US smartphone market is the most important one and the Lumia 900 has been announced with AT&T branding and LTE support. But no one could imagine we would soon get our hands on the white version of this device. I can’t recall at least one word hinting at the white Lumia 900, can you? However, I love Nokia and seems it loves me too — you can pre-order the white Nokia Lumia 900 at Microsoft stores now.

The Nokia Lumia 900 will be launched in the US on March 18 at a price tag of $99.99. It’s great considering that other markets, and especially the UK market will be given a chance to offer it only in June. Thus for a rather long time US customers will be the sole and lucky owners of the Lumia 900. Moreover, Microsoft has already started getting pre-orders for the device.

So hurry to the nearest Microsoft store and pre-order your own unit (I guess the white one) and let us know whether the company is getting pre-orders at $150 – $200 as it is rumored.

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No secret Nokia will launch its second Windows Phone in the US via AT&T, but nobody knows when exactly and at what price. We are talking about the Nokia Lumia 900, which is rumored to land on March 18 at $99.99 with a two-year contract. Things have gotten hotter as the phone is now available for pre-order.

The US will be the first country to greet Nokia’s first Windows Phone-packed LTE-enabled handset. The exclusive carrier will be AT&T, though some rumors say this exclusiveness will last for only a short period. Moreover, the same source mentioned the next carrier to offer the Lumia 900 will be T-Mobile. Most likely later on other carriers will join the marathon as well. Other than that, the Lumia 900 will be released in the UK, but the release is rumored to be scheduled for summer, so we assume other European countries will not get the phone earlier than this date.

What do we have? In a couple of months AT&T will launch the improved version of the Lumia 800 (if we can say so) at a quite affordable price. But if you want to be the first to get your hands on it, hurry to the closest Microsoft store and pre-order your own unit for $25, which will be included in the phone’s price later (when the final price tag is confirmed). You can choose the black or cyan Lumia 900 (you are required to pick your color option in advance).

We can’t say why the pre-orders are taken only by Microsoft stores and why the offer is not available online, but we believe it’s related to the uncertainty regarding the phone’s launch date and pricing.

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