AT&T's Nokia Lumia 900 launch delayed, now set to debut on April 22nd for $99.99
BGR exclusively reported this past January that the Nokia Lumia 900 will retail for a mind-blowing $99.99 with two-year agreement when it launches on AT&T. We also reported that the sleek smartphone was slated …
Context & Ripple Effects
BGR's January exclusive already framed the Lumia 900 as a price story — $99.99 on a two-year AT&T contract — and this report confirms both that number and a slip in the launch window to April 22nd. The pickup across eight outlets including CNET and PC World shows how much weight the Windows Phone camp is putting on this single device.
For Nokia, the phone is the centerpiece of its return to the US market, following February's $899 Lumia 800 Microsoft Store bundle as an early, expensive beachhead. A six-week delay on the flagship carrier push matters because the entire go-to-market — pricing, marketing, shelf placement — was calibrated around a spring debut.
First-order effects
- AT&T's spring smartphone lineup loses its Windows Phone anchor until late April, leaving sales staff without the device Nokia and Microsoft are betting their US narrative on.
- Buyers waiting on the $99.99 Lumia 900 face a longer decision window, during which competing Android handsets at AT&T can close the sale instead.
Second-order effects
- A $99.99 flagship-grade Lumia undercuts the typical subsidized price tier at AT&T, pressuring rivals' Android devices to defend that same contract-price slot or cede it.
- Every week of delay raises the marketing cost of the launch: Nokia and Microsoft must sustain pre-launch buzz into late April rather than converting it at shelves.
Third-order effects
- If the $99.99 template works, carrier subsidy depth becomes Nokia's primary competitive weapon in the US — buying Windows Phone share by trading handset margin, a structure that only scales while carriers keep subsidizing hardware against service revenue.
The trend: Nokia is attempting to re-enter the US smartphone market by pairing aggressive carrier-subsidized pricing with a single make-or-break Windows Phone flagship per carrier.