Amazon joins the Lumia 900 pre-order party – 1¢ for new customers

AT&T and Walmart on Nokia Lumia 900 pre-orders. Honestly, any time there are hot sales going on, Amazon usually gets itself into the mix, so it is no surprise that we just heard Amazon dropped the Lumia 900 down to a penny for new customers. Right now both the black and cyan versions can be pre-ordered from Amazon Wireless. New AT&T customers opening an individual or family account are eligible to purchase this handset for 1 cent.

Existing customers looking to extend their contract will be charged $119.99 and those looking to add a line to a family account will be charged $139.99. As we told you yesterday, Walmart is allowing existing customers to purchase the Windows Phone handset for just $49.99 with a new 2-year contract, so those of you in that category are better off with the Walmart deal. The no contract price is still $499.99, but most people can dodge sales tax by going through Amazon, so that may be an advantage for some.

CES 2012: Keynote Highlight - The Latest from Windows Phone:

Nokia Lumia 900 Goes Up For Pre-order In The UK

Earlier this week at Mobile World Congress Nokia announced that they would be releasing a European version of the Nokia Lumia 900, and now the device is availabl;e to pre-order here in the UK. One online retailer has listed the Nokia Lumia 900 to pre-order for £528 including taxes, although there doesn’t seem to be an actual launch date as ye, all we know is that it will be available some time in quarter two, although one other retailer did tell us earlier in the week that the handset would be available for around £445 including taxes.

The European Nokia Lumia 900 comes with a single core 1.4GHz processor, plus a rear facing 8 megapixel camera with an f2.2 Carl Zeiss lens, the rear camera is capable of recording HD video in 720p, up front we have a 1 megapixel camera with an f2.4 lens.

Other specifications on the Nokia Lumia 900 include 16GB of built in storage, plus a 1830 mAh battery and of course the 4.3 inch Clear Black AMOLED display with a resolution of 800 x 480 pixels.

Nokia Lumia 900 and 610 at MWC 2012:

Nokia Lumia 900 Appears At The FCC

Nokia Lumia 900 is due to go on sale in the US this month, Nokia also recently announced that they would be releasing the Nokia Lumia 900 in Canada and Europe and now the device has appeared at the FCC. The Nokia Lumia 900 features a single core 1.4GHz processor, plus a rear facing 8 megapixel camera with an f2.2 Carl Zeiss lens, the rear camera is capable of recording HD video in 720p, up front there is 1 megapixel camera with an f2.4 lens.

Other specifications on the Nokia Lumia 900 include 16GB of built in storage, plus a 1830 mAh battery and of course the 4.3 inch Clear Black AMOLED display with a resolution of 800 x 480 pixels. The US version of the Nokia Lumia 900 will be available this month, whilst the European version will be available some time this quarter.

Nokia Lumia 900 - first hands-on video:

Nokia's phone business earns it $1.16 billion in 2011, sells "well over" a million Lumia handsets

Nokia just released its financials for the last quarter of 2011 and for the whole year, and it ended up with about $1.4 billion loss.

That was actually not due to its phones business, which made $1.16 billion for the company, but from its Location & Commerce department (think NAVTEQ), and the Nokia Siemens Networks joint venture, which it has been looking to pawn off to the highest bidder in vain.

The company sold over a million Nokia Lumia 800 and 710 handsets, said the CEO Stephen Elop, which is in line with the latest analyst expectations:

In the war of ecosystems, clearly there are some strong contenders already on the field. And with Lumia, we have demonstrated that we belong on the field. Our specific intent has been to establish a beachhead in this war of ecosystems, and country by country that is what we are now accomplishing. To date we have sold well over 1 million Lumia devices. From this beachhead of more than 1 million Lumia devices, you will see us push forward with the sales, marketing and successive product introductions necessary to be successful. We also plan to bring the Lumia series to additional markets including China and Latin America in the first half of 2012.

Sales of Symbian smartphones and entry level handsets, while better in Q4 than in Q3, did not fare well overall, as was largely expected after the U-turn in strategy and the new direction with Windows Phone announced February last year. "In certain markets, there has been an acceleration of the anticipated trend towards lower-priced smartphones with specifications that aredifferent from Symbian’s traditional strengths. As a result of the changing market conditions, combined with our increased focus on Lumia, we now believe that we will sell fewer Symbian devices than we previously anticipated", comments Stephen Elop.

For the first quarter of 2012, Nokia expects to break even, plus/minus 2%, and has big plans for its newly created Location & Commerce division. While still operating at a loss, Nokia thinks it is well-positioned to provide location-based services for a fee to Windows Phones and various other mobile devices, capitalizing on the strength of NAVTEQ's mapping software. As far as Nokia Siemens Networks go, the company refrained from providing guidance, meaning that it will probably be the albatross on profits for a while. The company also didn't provide details about sales of its Nokia N9 MeeGo-based smartphone.

Nokia sold 113.5 million phones in Q4, of which 19.6 million were smartphones. That's 17% more smartphones than in Q3, which Nokia attributes to the broader availability of the Nokia N9, and the newly-released Lumia 800 and 710 handsets, as well as the usual holiday rush. The company ended up the year with about $7.4 billion in cash, which is a nice buffer until the Lumia handsets effect fully kicks in later this year.

Nokia Lumia 900 will hit UK's Carphone Warehouse in June

Nokia Lumia 900 is yet to hit AT&T's shelves (presumably in March), dressed in the mantle of exclusivity. However, in a rather surprising fashion, the UK availability of the Finnish range topper is also all but confirmed, courtesy of the major retailer Carphone Warehouse.

As you can notice in the picture above, the retailer has put up a "coming soon" page for the Nokia flagship, where a June 2012 availability is mentioned. Price is yet to be announced though.

While Nokia executives specifically commented that the device has been developed specifically with the North American market in mind, it would have been a major surprise to see such an appealing piece of hardware get confined to only one continent.

Of course, we can't help but notice the asterisk, which states that the availability is subject to change without notice. In any case, Carphone Warehouse is a big enough retailer, so we can take its claim for availability seriously enough.

Also, there is a handy pre-register form for the overly anxious, allowing you to get an email alert when the device becomes available. In the meantime, you are welcome to check out our first impressions of the Nokia Lumia 900 from CES here.

Update: It would appear that Carphone Warehouse have pulled the Lumia 900's 'coming soon' page, leading us to believe that it either didn't mean to pull the cover off the device's existence in the UK so soon, or we'll get a confirmed release date when the page goes back up. Either way, right now, we're still left guessing.