Nokia and AT&T Finally Announce Their Inevitable Lumia 920 Deal

Well, the inevitable has finally taken place and Nokia and AT&T have finally gotten around to putting the final stamp on how the Lumia 920 and 820 Windows 8 phones will play out in AT&T's grand plans. We are surprised it has taken this long to make the announcement happen; we had anticipated that Nokia would have its carrier agreements in place, at the very least with AT&T when the company announced the new Lumia phones, though that turned out not to be the case.

Per the announcement, AT&T will now become the first carrier in the U.S. to offer the Lumia 920 and 820 when the new devices ship finally ship in November. As hard as it was to believe that Nokia did not at least have AT&T in hand for its announcement back in early September, it is hard to fathom that even today the companies did not manage to disclose what the Lumia pricing would be in the United States. It is this sort of "incompleteness" that continues to dog Nokia, and that the company must put an end to.

This is of course the second go-around between Nokia and AT&T on the Lumia front, with the companies aggressively launching the Lumia 900 at the beginning of the year. The launch of the 900 got off to a good start, with a good launch day and with AT&T providing Nokia with excellent support, which included a huge promotional campaign. For many reasons however -- key among them the pending release of Windows 8 and the fact that the Lumia 900 would not be able to support Windows 8 -- immediately killed off any long term sales beyond the initial launch -- with 900 prices inevitably dropping to near give-away status and in fact being removed from AT&T store shelves. A rather ignominious fate unfortunately.  

As is to be expected in any such deals, AT&T has committed to, of course, train its retail employees to market the new Lumia Windows 8 devices. That is not a guarantee that AT&T sales people will be able to promote or otherwise push the Lumia 920 and 820. Reality dictates that the sales people will cater to whatever the customer comes in and asks for - and without fail that will be the iPhone 5.

We do, however, hold out a great deal of belief that the Lumia 920 will fare well against the Samsung Galaxy S III. We believe that Nokia stands a great chance of besting Samsung during the holiday buying season. The Nokia camera on the Lumia 920 isn't enough to change the minds of any shoppers who already plan to buy an iPhone 5 but we believe the Nokia camera -- if AT&T's sales people can figure out how to effectively get the word out - will be a critical differentiator that will win out over the Galaxy's big screen. The Lumia 920 screen is only marginally smaller that the Galaxy III screen but the camera is hugely better than what Samsung can deliver - that is where the real Lumia 920 chances hinge.

What would be our preference -- the Lumia's extremely solid polycarbonate body (maybe in bright yellow) and awesome camera or the flimsy Galaxy S III and its marginally larger screen? We'll take the Lumia 920 and not ask twice about it -- and that is what Nokia needs to hope AT&T's store sales folks had better be able to deliver on.

AT&T isn't enough though. Nokia must get all of the key North American carriers on board - that means Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile, at a price point that makes a difference. How about $149?

If the carriers are smart they will also consider that as the price point for moving customers that are in the middle of their contracts -- Microsoft can help Nokia by putting their own dollars behind subsidizing this. Currently AT&T offers iPhone 4S users in the middle of their contracts a discount on an iPhone 5 -- a new two year deal at $199, plus $250 dollars. That adds up to $449. If we were to consider that vs. $149 for a new two year contract and a Lumia 920 we -- being diehard iPhone 5 fans -- might also need to think twice. Samsung Galaxy III users might not have to think about it at all. It would be a huge deal, especially as the holiday season kickoff is fast coming our way.

Technology isn't enough. Nokia and Microsoft must get creative financially or they won't have a prayer. Make it happen!