The Lumia 900 may light the way to Nokia's revival

Not long ago, Research In Motion was sitting pretty on the smartphone throne. Now the BlackBerry maker's ranks are thinner and RIM is refocusing on its core business customer base, while largely ceding the consumer kingdom to rivals Google and Apple.
Nokia hopes for a more favorable outcome as it competes for the affections of the U.S. smartphone buyer with the Lumia 900, which reaches AT&T and other retailers today.
Its latest efforts are indelibly linked to Microsoft and the fortunes of the well-reviewed Windows Phone mobile operating system. (Devices based on the OS are not quite leaping off store shelves.)
The Lumia 900 I've tested runs Windows Phone version 7.5, or Mango. I like the hardware, and I like the operating system. Windows Phone offers a strong alternative to the status quo.
Windows Phone is built around a people-first interface of colorful, customizable tiles that are dynamically updated with pictures, or to show, say, the number of emails in your inbox. Tap the People hub tile to see folks you recently called, or to see updated posts and activities from pals or those you follow on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Windows Live, all conveniently collected in one place.
Nokia, Microsoft and exclusive U.S. carrier AT&T are betting big on Lumia 900. It initially arrives in black or blue versions; two weeks later, a white model becomes available.
The launch will be backed by enormous TV and in-store marketing. And the phone's alluring $99.99 price (with the requisite two-year AT&T data plan) is a disruptive sum for a smartphone of this caliber.
Pricing appears to be a critical piece of Nokia's comeback strategy. Earlier this year, it launched a cheaper entry-level smartphone, the Lumia 710, with T-Mobile for about $50. That phone is now free some places with a contract.
Nokia's flagship Lumia 900 is thin, but at 5.6 ounces, it's not the lightest . You can't expand the 16GB of internal memory, though free cloud storage is available through Microsoft's SkyDrive. Techies may decry the single-core Snapdragon processor, but Lumia 900 never felt like a laggard.
The phone can tap into AT&T's zippy 4G LTE network in the 31 markets where it is available. If LTE is out of reach, Lumia 900 operates off a slower flavor of 4G known as HSPA+, up to four times faster than 3G. Battery life is always a concern with 4G, but I got through a workday of mixed usage on the device's large, sealed battery.
You can use the phone as a mobile hot spot to provide wireless Internet to up to five other devices ($50 for 5GB).
The Lumia 900 has a decent 4.3-inch Amoled display. Inside is a cellphone camera system based on Carl Zeiss optics: wide-angle lens, f/2.2 aperture, and dual LED flash. It can record up to the 720p HD video standard, not the higher-quality 1080p standard on the iPhone or other devices.
Overall, there are about 70,000 apps available for the Lumia 900, a respectable total that still falls far short of the number for iOS or Android.
Microsoft's ecosystem is evident via tie-ins to Bing, Xbox Live, Office and Zune. You can buy music from the phone but not movies or TV shows. A mobile version of AT&T's U-verse is on board for subscribers to that video service.
Nokia faces formidable competition. But with an attractive price, refreshing operating system and a growing supply of apps, it may be well on the way to crafting a compelling comeback story.

Source: indystar.com