Nokia Ace LTE Windows Phone potentially revealed in holiday video card
We knew Nokia was readying an LTE Windows Phone for AT&T called the Ace, and now we may have our first look at the device— thanks to a holiday video greeting. According to PocketNow, one of Microsoft's partners sent out the video …
Context & Ripple Effects
Nokia's Windows Phone program has been leaking in stages all year: the February 2011 exclusive on the Windows Phone 7 concept, June's Sea Ray images and video, and mid-December reports of AT&T and Verizon testing a 4G LTE Nokia Lumia. The Ace fits that last thread — an LTE handset for AT&T that PocketNow says appears briefly in a holiday video card sent by one of Microsoft's partners.
The timing matters because an exclusive report a day earlier had Microsoft and its partners planning to add LTE support to Windows Phone devices in 2012. If the Ace is real, it is the concrete device behind that plan, and it surfaced through a partner's marketing material rather than any Nokia announcement.
First-order effects
- Nokia gains a would-be LTE flagship for AT&T's network, but loses control of the reveal: the first public look at the Ace comes from a partner's holiday greeting, not from Nokia or Microsoft.
- Microsoft's stated 2012 LTE roadmap now has a named, visible device attached to it, raising expectations for what Windows Phone partners show at CES and Mobile World Congress.
Second-order effects
- Verizon, which was reported testing the same LTE Nokia Lumia alongside AT&T, faces pressure to lock in its own LTE Windows Phone before AT&T secures exclusivity on the Ace.
- Rival Android handset makers selling LTE devices on AT&T now compete against a Windows Phone entrant whose differentiation is carrier-backed 4G rather than specs alone.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, Windows Phone's second year is shaped less by Microsoft's own launches than by carrier-specific hardware deals and a steady drip of unofficial reveals — with partners' marketing channels becoming a recurring leak surface.
- The Ace points toward LTE becoming table stakes for US smartphone lineups in 2012, forcing every platform holder to match Android's 4G footprint or cede the high end.
The trend: Windows Phone's 2012 push is converging on carrier-tied LTE flagships, with leaks from partner channels outrunning Nokia's and Microsoft's own reveal cadence.