Google Nexus 7 Tablet Forces Nokia Lumia 900 Price Cut to $49
Nokia has dropped the price of the Lumia 900 to its original price in the United States, just three months after its release.
Once the world's dominant mobile phone provider, Nokia was late to embrace smartphones, and has lost out to Apple and Samsung in the mobile market.
The phone can be purchased for $50 with a two-year contract through AT&T.
Nokia's shares fell over 3 percent on Monday after the company slashed the price of its flagship smartphone, with investors seeing it as a sign of desperation in its battle against Apple and Samsung.
Doug Dawson, a spokesman for Nokia, said the move was "an industry standard practice."
"I realize we're under a microscope at the moment and everything we do is under closer scrutiny, but this move is a normal strategy that is put in place during the lifecycle of most phones, and allows a broader consumer base to buy this flagship device at a more accessible price," Mr. Dawson said in an e-mail to The New York Times.
"We continue to be pleased with sales of the Lumia, which is part of our industry-leading portfolio of smartphones, and we routinely offer promotions on handsets," said Mark Siegel, a spokesman for AT&T.
The Finnish phone maker formed a partnership with Microsoft last year to make handsets featuring Windows Phone, Microsoft's mobile operating system. Prior to its release, AT&T called it "its biggest phone introduction in history, surpassing the release of the iPhone," according to another New York Times report.
Sales of Samsung's Android phones have topped Nokia, who was once considered the biggest phone maker in the world.
Nokia and AT&T have not disclosed official sales figures for the Lumia 900.
Another factor that may be hurting sales of the Lumia 900 aside of the recent release of the Google Nexus 7, is that Microsoft announced last month that Lumia 900 owners would not be able to upgrade its software to Windows Phone 8, which is due out this fall, according to the New York Times report.
The Lumia 900 has a 4.3-inch screen, 1.4-GHz processor and an 8-megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss lens.
According to several reports, the downside of the latest Nokia model is that it won't be upgradeable to Windows 8 which is going to appear on the market this fall. The Lumia 900 runs on Windows 7.8.
The Lumia 900 may be a lifesaver for Nokia, according to Daily Gossip. Research showed that more than 80 percent of owners of the mobile device are very pleased with the developer's new model. According to Nielsen, 83 percent said their expectations were exceeded. Also, data showed that more than 95 percent of the Lumia users would recommend it to others.
