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 Astound for T-Mobile will not get updated to Belle

Once upon a time, there was a cute Symbian smartphone known as the Nokia C7. It was announced back in September of 2010, and by April of 2011, it was released in the U.S. bearing the Nokia Astound moniker, courtesy of T-Mobile.

Now, as we reported yesterday, the Nokia Belle update started rolling out to select Symbian devices bringing lots of goodies both on the outside and the inside of the platform. And since the Nokia C7 is on the list of smartphones that are getting it, one would assume that the Nokia Astound would be treated to an update too as it is practically the same device. But to the misfortune of all Nokia Astound owners, the Nokia Belle update is not meant to meet the humble Astound, as it was announced via the Twitter feed for Nokia US.

Perhaps it is time to move on and pick a new handset? If you are happy with being a T-Mobile subscriber, the T-Mobile Valentine's Day sale might be a great opportunity to upgrade. All of the carrier's phones, top of the line devices included, will be priced at zero, so feel free to stop by a retail store or visit the T-Mobile web page this Saturday.

vlingo- virtual assistant (for nokia symbian anna belle devices):

Nokia N9 might dual-boot into ICS soon

The first and only MeeGo smartphone, the Nokia N9, might soon turn into an Android device. Well, if you’re into some hacking - Alexey Roslyakov of the NITDroid team has posted a picture of ICS running on the Nokia N9. The title is “progress” and even though it’s still just an early build with its fair share of issues, it seems that work is advancing.

The NITDroid team is also working on porting Android 4.0 to the good old Maemo-running N900. Now, one thing that’s particularly great about the combination of a Nokia N9 and MeeGo is the combination of a device with no physical buttons with an operating system that requires none. The handset also sports a fairly large 3.9-inch display, so you’d have some extra space for the navigational controls.

Finally, Roslyakov mentions that you can put your worries aside when it comes to MeeGo on the N9 and Android - both operating systems could run in a dual-boot setup in the future. Here’s to hoping.

Nokia N900 dual booting Maemo 5 and Android:

Nokia, Motorola and Sony seen increasing handset orders to ODMs in 2012

Having seen their share of the smartphone market eaten away by Apple and Samsung, Nokia, Motorola Mobility and Sony are looking to increase their handset orders in 2012. These orders, which are going to Taiwan based ODMs, are being used by the trio in an attempt to win back the marketshare lost to the Apple iPhone and the Samsung Galaxy S II.

While Finnish based manufacturer Nokia recently gave pink slips to 4,000 employees in Hungary, Mexico and Finland to move production to Asia, DigiTimes says that Foxconn International Holdings (FIH) will get more EMS and smartphone orders from Nokia. Compal Communications will also see an increase in orders from Nokia. Motorola is expected to give more business to Foxconn and Arima Communications with the focus on Android flavored smartphones. Sony also will be lining Foxconn's pockets in return for the production of entry-level and mid-range Android models. Some other Android models will be built by Arima for Sony.

DigiTimes says that its source points out that Motorola Mobility (being acquired by Google) and Sony both could have changes in management which might lead to changes in the ODMs used by both firms. An ODM is an Original Design Manufacturer that designs and manufacturers a product specified by another company that eventually puts its brand on that device.

Nokia Belle update finally starts reaching Symbian handsets today Nokia Belle update finally starts reaching Symbian handsets today

After a long wait, Nokia Belle, the second major update to Symbian^3, starts rolling out to handsets today, Nokia announced in its official blog. The update finally makes Symbian look much more like a contemporary operating system with matching visuals, 6 home screens, a new drop down menu a la Android, neat widgets with a huge clock a la HTC Sense, better maps and plenty of other novelties.

Functionality is also improved, with faster browser with a cleaner UI, imaging applications supporting 720p video recording at 30fps and simpler menus. A couple of Microsoft apps like Lync and OneNote will also soon be made available. The Nokia Symbian Belle update is available now for the following models:

Nokia N8, Nokia E7, Nokia E6, Nokia X7,Nokia C6-01,Nokia C7 or Nokia Oro.

The only handset that will need to wait a bit is the Nokia 500. Nokia Belle will be available for it in the coming weeks. The update is available in pretty much all major Nokia markets - in Europe that’s the UK, Russia, Germany, etc. As to the updating process itself, it’s pretty straightforward, and there’s even a step by step guide at Nokia’s official blog, so hit it below to get the instructions and let us know how it all went in the comments below.

Nokia Belle Update - same phone, new experience:

Samsung Galaxy Note vs Nokia Lumia 800

Nokia's first Windows Phone device has been under a lot of scrutiny since its inception and now it's finally here we have a chance to fairly judge the Lumia 800, rather than speculating, moaning and generally being doomsayers.

Software
Nokia announced that it would be joining forces with Microsoft earlier in the year and the Lumia 800 is the first device to come to fruition from that union.
The Lumia 800 runs on Windows Phone 7.5 Mango and, as you'd expect, performs very well thanks to the rapidly maturing mobile platform.
You get plenty of upgrades over the launch version of Windows Phone in Mango, including support for (select third party) multi-tasking, social networking support, Internet Explorer 9 (which now supports HTML 5, which is a very important addition in light of Adobe's recent abandonment of Flash mobile).
Windows Phone 7.5 is a great choice for Nokia and makes the Lumia 800 a viable choice for any mobile fan.
Samsung's Galaxy Note runs on version 2.3 of Android and the Google software is a delight to use.
There's apps aplenty available via the Android Market, loads of customisation potential and, most importantly, the platform runs fast, safe and smooth.


Display
Nokia has chosen to imbue the Lumia 800 with a 3.7-inch AMOLED screen that operates at a resolution of 480x800 and has a pixel density of 252PPI.
Choosing AMOLED was a great choice by Nokia and the Lumia 800 thoroughly lives up to its name thanks to the delightfully bright, vivid screen.

The Galaxy Note features AMOLED technology though too. But seeing as AMOLED is Samsung's baby the device gets a Super AMOLED screen, which operates at a resolution of 800x1280, features a pixel density of 285PPI and measures a whopping 5.3-inches!
The Galaxy Note's display is a great performer and the size adds so much to the device. If you're viewing photos or exploring the wonders of the World Wide Web then it's a fantasic device to choose.

Power
Nokia hasn't scrimped on the power for the Lumia 800. It runs on a single-core CPU clocked at 1.4GHz and also features an Adreno 205 GPU, giving the device plenty of grunt and the inclusion of 512MB RAM will help the device chew through even the most testing apps, games or other tasks.
Samsung's Galaxy Note offers more though, in the form of a 1.4Ghz dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 processor, Mali-400MP GPU and 1GB RAM, which drives the device to perform with blistering pace.
Form & Build
Samsung Galaxy Note - 146.9 x 83 x 9.7 mm, 178g
Nokia Lumia 800 - 116.5 x 61.2 x 12.1 mm, 142g
Samsung has stuck firmly to its tried and tested 'plastic über alles' approach for the Galaxy Note. The device is light, thin and doesn't really feel as if it should cost a fortune.
Sure, there are no creaks and the device is fairly robust, but the general feel and aesthetic isn't something we recommend.
The display benefits from a Gorilla Glass coating though and we can't fault the device for comfort (considering it's such a big-screened smartphone) so we'll take our minor gripes and stow them.
The Lumia 800 feels fantastic in the hand and exudes class. It's polycarbonate chassis feels strong and looks great and the device is thin enough to not feel like a brick in your pocket.
Camera
Nokia's relationship with Carl Zeiss has produced some great camera-phones over the years and while the Lumia 800 is a good device, it's by no means great.
The 8-megapixel camera, which benefits from autofocus, dual-LED flash,  geo-tagging and 720P movie capture, is a nice performer but doesn't live up to the standards we've come to expect from a company with Nokia's nous.
If you're willing to invest time in taking a picture with the device you'll be fine as it's fully capable of producing stunning results. Nonetheless, the device does struggle to focus and can seem laboured to start from cold, which is never a winner when you're trying to snap an impromptu photo
These minor gripes can be ironed-out with a software update though, so don't let this put you off the device entirely.
Samsung's Galaxy Note features an 8-megapixel camera too, which comes with an LED flash, autofocus, image stabilisation, geo-tagging, touch focus, face & smile detection and 1080P video capture!


Its power is immense, its screen is delightful and it feels like you're using a sheet of cardboard to surf the Web. What's not to like about that?!
Nokia's Lumia 800 is a great stride forward for the company though. The device is solid as rock and performs well thanks to Microsoft's excellent operating system.

Samsung expects to rob Nokia of top maker title this year

The time of Nokia's unquestionable reign in the mobile phone market is drawing to a close it seems, as the Finns lost the smartphone shipment race last year. Samsung are reportedly gunning for the top, confident they can outsell Nokia in all categories in 2012.

They've beaten their 2010 sales records, moving the impressive 300 million phones in 2011, which seems to set them on the right track. They were on top in terms of smartphone volumes, but still trail Nokia when you consider all phones.

Analysts from Gartner are less certain that the South Koreans can steal the crown, saying that Nokia's strong position in emerging markets will allow it to maintain its lead. Especially, because the growth of the smartphone market is expected to slow down this year, except in emerging markets where Nokia reigns supreme. This is something Samsung will need to address if they really want the top spot, analysts say.

Reuters is predicting Nokia will sell 388 million phones in 2012, with Samsung following close by with 359 million. Their predictions for 2011 were 418 million and 320 million respectively, so predictions aren't always exact.

We'll see how things go. Samsung is pushing forward with Android, Bada and maybe Tizen, while Nokia is making Symbian (now Nokia OS, previously the top OS by market share) play second fiddle to their new love Windows Phone, which both Nokia and Microsoft expect to really pick up this year.

Nokia Q4 results are out, Lumia sold well over 1 million units

It's Nokia's turn to sum up its financial Q4 and we finally got to learn more about the market performance of the Lumia smartphones. As it turns out the sales aren't too bad, but the company still lost a huge amount of money in the holiday quarter.

In what Nokia described as very solid performance, the Lumia duo sold "well over 1 million" units, which is less than the 2 million targets, but better than the half million predictions of some analysts. You should keep in mind, though, that this number includes Lumia sales until today and not just in Q4.

A million sales is hardly enough to justify everything that the company went through after it announced its major change of strategy in February, but it's still a start and hopefully things will only get better from now on.

Also, Nokia finally started receiving the subsidy that was put in its contract with Microsoft when it started making WP smartphones. The company got $250 million this quarter and will be looking for much more in the future, if reports of a deal worth north of $2 billion are to be believed.

Still, according to the IFRS numbers (IFRS is the international standard for such reports), Nokia lost €954 million (about $1,260 million) this quarter alone or a total of €1,073 million ($1,413 million) for the whole 2011.

The company experienced year-on-year decreases in almost every one of its businesses, including the total number of phones sold. Average selling price also went down, so we can hardly attribute to the transition to smartphones alone.

Things are looking a little brighter if you compare them to Q3 of 2010, but the holiday season is bound to lead to some increase in sales.

So, Nokia obviously got their start in the WP game, but the verdict is quite clear - they need to step up their game. Of course, it would be nice if Microsoft did its part, too and brought the platform up to speed (multi-core support, FullHD video and higher display resolutions immediately spring to mind).

If you can't get enough of those numbers, you might want to follow the source link for the complete Nokia Q4 and full 2011 report.