Nokia Lumia 900 Price Drops To $49

Smartphones: Never Too Thin Or Too Organic

The Lumia 900 is selling well below its list price online, an indication that dealers are still struggling to build market share for Nokia's flagship smartphone, which runs Microsoft's Windows Phone 7.5 operating system.

The Lumia 900 is still selling for its originally listed price of $99, with contract, through AT&T or Nokia directly and at retailers like Best Buy. But it can be had for just $49 from Amazon's wireless shop. Amazon is known for its heavy discounts, but it's noteworthy that Nokia's top-end Windows Phone is now available for less than $50.

Nokia has not released early sales figures for the Lumia 900, but it's likely that the device could use any boost it gets from the price discount. After topping Amazon's bestseller list in the days after it launched, the phone has now fallen to fifth place, behind four Android smartphones and a Samsung feature phone.

Microsoft launched its Windows Phone 7 platform in late 2010, amid much fanfare. The OS and a number of devices that run it have been well received by critics, who've noted that Microsoft's mobile Metro interface stands out in a market dominated by phones with screens littered with icons. But the praise has not translated into sales.

[ Can Windows Phone compete with iPhones and Androids? See: Nokia's Lumia 'Not Good Enough' Say Carriers. ]

According to numbers released by ComScore this week, Windows Phone's U.S. market share fell to below 4% in March. The Lumia 900 launched April 8--too late to help those numbers, but subsequent reports from the market watcher should be telling as to the impact Nokia's flagship is having on Windows Phone sales.

Microsoft and Nokia spared little expense in promoting the product. They held an Easter weekend launch party in New York City's Times Square that featured a live performance by hip hop artist Nicki Minaj.

An AT&T 4G LTE exclusive, the Lumia 900 boasts a generous 4.3-inch AMOLED ClearBlack display, an 8-MP camera with a lens from German optics specialist Carl Zeiss, a front-facing camera for videoconferencing, a 1.4-GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, and 14.5 GB of available storage. It's also less than half-an-inch thick.

Like all Windows Phones, it uses Microsoft's Metro interface and Live Tiles, which display real-time updates from social networks, e-mail, messaging, and other services, directly to the home screen.

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