Year on year, the numbers are even more dismal, with overall volumes stopping 22-percent. In the same period, net sales dropped 34-percent.

Nokia blames “lower operator and distributor demand for Lumia as well as our efforts to prepare the distribution channel for the upcoming sales start of new devices” for the drop in North America, while sales in China were down because of “competitive pressures” trampling on Symbian interest.

There’s frustration ahead for existing Lumia owners, however, with the news earlier this year that their hardware would not be compatible with the next version of Windows Phone. Instead, they’ll get Windows Phone 7.8, a UI refresh, but few of the underlying software improvements. How that might impact the warm, fuzzy feelings toward the Finnish firm by early-adopters remains to be seen.

All hopes are now on Nokia’s new Windows Phone 8 line-up, which currently consists of the Lumia 920 flagship and the Lumia 820 mainstream handset. Nokia is also focusing on wireless charging as a differentiator, though the company has been criticized for the relatively high prices of its charging accessories.

If you use the Nokia Lumia 900, 800, or 710, you’re in luck. These devices will have access to City Lens starting today. All you’ve got to do is follow the following directions to grab it quite quickly! You’ll be using your device’s camera to see a QR-code first and foremost – from there you’ll get the download and you’ll be on your way! Note that you do need an internet connection to grab this download, so make sure data or wifi are on!

1. Press the Search button on your Nokia Lumia and then tap Vision
2. Scan the barcode
3. Tap on the link when it appears on the screen
4. Install the application from the Windows Phone Marketplace

You could also, of course, just go straight to the Windows Phone Marketplace, but that’s not nearly as fun a process! Have a peek at our hands-on with City Lens through the eyes of the Nokia Lumia 920 here, and note that the final version for the 920 and the 820 will vary just a bit from the version you’re seeing for your 900, 800, or 710 today.

With Windows Phone 8 as it appears on the 920 and 820 you’ll find some features that only appear on Windows Phone 8 devices and above. With this version of City Lens, you’ll be able to pin to start any category tile. You’ll also be able to add your own favorite searches, and you’ll be able to use City Lens in both portrait and landscape modes. Check our timeline below for more City Lens action!

[via Nokia]

Previously, Compal Communications had been responsible for production of the Lumia 800 and other existing first-gen Windwos Phones, but that’s set to change for the Lumia 920 and 820. Nokia will supposedly use its own facilities, DigiTimes says, though may continue to outsource mid- and entry-level Windows Phone devices to Compal and other OEMs in the future.

As for the cheaper prices for existing phones, Nokia painted the decision as a standard part of device evolution. “Our pricing has been business as usual, reflecting typical product lifecycle changes” a Nokia spokesperson said in a statement, though declined to comment specifically on the reported cuts.

Nonetheless, with no official release date given for the new phones, nor indications of how much they will cost, there’s uncertainty as to how Nokia’s ailing fortunes will do over the next few months. Although pressed, the company declined to say when exactly the Windows Phone 8 Lumias would hit shelves, or indeed with which carriers.

Instead, it promised availability later in the year, with both 4G LTE and HSPA+ versions on offer. More on the new Lumia devices in our full wrap-up.

[via Unwired View]

Bonetti explains the process of buying a Groupon deal on your phone in a post on the Nokia Conversations blog – when you’re looking for something in Nokia Maps, you’ll be alerted to Groupon deals at nearby places. Each deal listed on your map comes with an “exhaustive description,” and deciding to buy one will take you to the Groupon mobile site where you’ll complete your purchase. Unfortunately, those living outside the US are out of luck for the time being, as Groupon Now! deals are currently only available in the US due to their “geographically limited” nature.

Support for Groupon Now! isn’t the only thing Nokia is touting with this update. Nokia has introduced a new feature called “advanced route setting” in this update, which allows users to plan trips within the Nokia Maps app. Select your starting point and destination, tell the app if you’ll be walking, driving, or taking public transportation, and you’re good to go. Nokia also says that users can save the route to their start screen, so it will be ready for future trips.

At this point in time, Nokia Maps is only compatible with the Nokia Lumia 610, 710, 800, and 900, so if you don’t own one of those models, then this update doesn’t apply to you. Users can get the update by either waiting for the notification from the Windows Phone Marketplace or downloading it from the Nokia Collection. It sounds like an excellent update, so if you’re a regular user of Nokia Maps, be sure to grab it.

WiFi Tethering is as you would expect, enabling you to share your phone’s internet connection with up to five devices, while flip-to-silence will mute any incoming calls or alerts once you reposition the phone. The Camera Extras app includes Group Shot, which takes five photos and determines the best faces from the selection, while Action Shot serves as a burst mode, allowing you to choose the best photo from the handful that are taken. Self-Timer and Panorama mode are self-explanatory.

As mentioned above, Play To will allow you to stream video and music to other DLNA compatible devices, and there’s also a Contact Share feature that will let you send business cards using SMS. Nokia says that the Tango update will start rolling out to the handsets now through the end of July, and once you’ve upgraded you’ll have access to the new apps. If you want to check for the update you’ll need to plug your phone into a computer and fire up Zune, so hop to it.

[via ZDNet]

The app is exclusive to Lumia devices, and will net you four months worth of Voddler Plus, normally costing €7.90 per month. In addition to that, you’ll get two “Lumia tickets”, allowing you to create and coordinate a Movie Night with a friend. If you don’t want to pony up for the Plus service after that, you can always continue viewing the ad-supported movies for free.

Voddler is restricted to a few select European countries, though, including Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland and Spain. The company says that more market are on the way for 2012 though, so keep an eye out if this sounds like your kind of thing. The app should be sitting in the Windows Marketplace right now, waiting for those lucky enough to live in the selected countries.

[via Engadget]

Currently Nokia is said to have around €4.9 billion (~$6.2 billion) in cash reserves, with analysts predicting that the company will lose €2 billion (~$2.54 billion) over the next several quarters. At that rate, Nokia would be out of cash reserve by the end of the year. One analsyt believes even short-term debts could be affected: “In our opinion, the company’s ability to repay even its shorter-term 2014 bond could be an issue.”

The company recognizes that cash flow is important, saying in a statement: “Nokia is implementing a decisive action plan to position our company for future growth and success. The main focus of these actions is on lowering the company’s costs, improving cash flow and maintaining a strong financial position.”

Nokia is hoping that its Windows Phone partnership will pay off in the United States. So far sales indciators have pointed at a mostly successful launch for the Lumia 900, although the response for the Lumia 800 in Europe has been somewhat tepid. The company was also recently knocked off the global phone sales spot by Samsung.

[via Reuters]

Once you fire up the app, you’ll see local restaurants, landmarks, hotels, and shops overlayed on top the live camera image, with the markers and information shifting in and out of view along with your movements. When you tap on an item, you’ll be taken to the relevant information which includes a description and reviews.

Nokia has also included a built in sharing function, so if you see something that takes your fancy you’ll be able to beam it over to friends using email or SMS. Want to play around with City Lens? Head over to the Nokia Beta Labs for the download link. Nokia will keep a track of feedback and update the app accordingly based on user suggestions and reviews.

[via Nokia Conversations]

Agrenti highlighted the numerous developer events that Nokia holds throughout the world, with 600 planned from the beginning of this year through to July. About 100 of those are for the United States, with some held by Nokia, and others being a joint venture between Microsoft and Nokia.

When asked how developers were being brought to the platform, Agrenti once again pointed back to the developer events, but also mentioned that the Lumia 900 has seen a strong response in the United States, thanks in part to the media campaign undertaken by AT&T and Nokia. However, when asked if Microsoft was really paying developers to build apps for the platform and if Nokia was involved, the question was deftly dodged.

Nokia has been struggling to keep a hold on the smartphone market thanks to Apple and Samsung, with the latter company recently overtaking Nokia in worldwide smartphone shipments. The Finnish smartphone manufacturer hopes its gambit with Windows Phone will pay off, and the push behind the Lumia 900 in the United States definitely indicates that the company is taking the situation seriously.

[via WMPoweruser]

It doesn’t look particularly easy, with some room having to be made to accommodate the copper wire that needs to be installed. Even the user found it difficult, noting that it took around 12 hours of experimenting before finally figuring out how to make the mod work. A minimal amount of metal inside the phone was removed in order to make the charge work, after which the conductive coil was taped inside the phone using electrical tape.

A little bit of soldering later (always a risky proposition when it comes to an expensive smartphone), the end result is a Nokia Lumia 800 that can be charged via the Touchstone. It looks like the receiver takes a couple of seconds to register the phone, but once it does, everything seems to work without issues.

Check the video below to see a more detailed look at the mod and the exact process.

[via My Nokia Blog]

WP7.nl scored the screenshots, which show an update to 1600.3030.8773.12120 for Windows Phone. That update seemingly grants both the Lumia 710 and the 800C the ability to tether using WiFi. Looks like Refresh (aka Tango) won’t just be bringing reduced spec requirements then, and certain Lumia owners will be receiving a nice little bonus.

The update so far is available in Belgium, the Netherlands, and Vietnam, but there’s no word yet on when we can expect it in other territories. You may have noticed above that the Lumia 800C, the Chinese model, is receiving the update and not the original Lumia 800. Since this seems to be a regional update, it’s probably specific to the 800C’s hardware, and we imagine a separate update for the 800 will make its way to users eventually.

The same goes for the overall Refresh update: Microsoft previously staggered the Mango update across devices and countries, so the same will probably occur here too. Keep your eyes peeled, and drop us a tip if you see the update hitting your device!

[via Nokiapoweruser]

“Our disappointing Devices & Services first quarter 2012 financial results and outlook for the second quarter 2012 illustrates that our Devices & Services business continues to be in the midst of transition,” CEO Stephen Elop said in a statement today. “Within our Smart Devices business unit, we have established early momentum with Lumia, and we are increasing our investments in Lumia to achieve market success. Our operator and distributor partners are providing solid support for Windows Phone as a third ecosystem, as evidenced most recently by the launch of the Lumia 900 by AT&T in the United States.”

Overall, devices and services net sales are expected in the region of €4.2bn ($5.52bn), with smartphones – not limited to Windows Phones – comprising €1.7bn ($2.2bn) of that, at 12 million units. Average selling price for a Lumia Windows Phone was €220 ($289), and Nokia says it has “ seen sequential growth in Lumia device activations every month since starting sales of Lumia devices in November 2011.”

Still, the company isn’t leaving anything to chance. Nokia is apparently pumping more money into Lumia, so as to broaden the number of markets in which its Windows Phones are available, while tweaking pricing lower for its dumbphones for the “Next Billion” segment; it will also accelerate new dumbphones in Q2 2012.

“We are continuing to increase the clock speed of the company,” Elop insists. “The change is tangible, and we are proud of the way Nokia employees are quickly responding to the needs of consumers and partners.” Full Q1 2012 results will be revealed on April 19.

A team at Nokia challenged various pedestrians with smartphones in London to the challenge, seeing which phone could perform tasks the quickest. The challenges are pretty much the same as the “Smoked” campaign – take a picture then send it to a friend, update your Facebook status – but if you win, you only get £10 (~$16).

In a nice little marketing twist, the losers were treated to a £50 voucher that could be redeemed against a Lumia 800 purchase. In the U.S, you walk away with nothing, and have to declare your loss in a photo or video. The campaign recently came under fire when a Galaxy Nexus won a contest, but was declared the loser “just because.” Microsoft quickly rectified the situation, offering the winner the prize $1,000 laptop and a Nokia Lumia 800 bundle.

If you want to see the “Lumia Challenge” shenanigans taking place on the streets of London, check out the video below.

[via Phone Arena]

Bringing the firmware version to 1600.2487.8107.12070, the new release will be staggered over a four week period. The first updates – delivered via the Zune app on Windows or the Mac Windows Phone 7 Connector – will go out today, with new batches promised on April 4, April 11 and April 18. There’s an interactive map to see exactly which phase your country and carrier is in.

Nokia isn’t saying exactly how long the Lumia 800′s battery will now last, but anecdotal evidence from leaked versions of the firmware suggested as much as a threefold increase in runtime. “Internal testing also showed that for smartphones with similar battery capacities (the Lumia 800 sports a 1450mAh battery), the Lumia 800 was now among the top performers in battery life for the key measures that we concentrated on” Nokia says, though the company doesn’t specify exactly which those measures are.

Perhaps more usefully, in one Lumia 800 user’s past two weeks of testing the updated firmware they’ve seen 25-30 hours of battery life. That apparently includes calls, texts, browsing, GPS use in Nokia Drive and Nokia Maps, music and push-email, though also the phone in flight mode for roughly five hours.

Other changes include fettling of the bass performance, which Nokia says should make for more enjoyable music playback and more rounded voice calls. The soft keys will also light up no matter what the brightness level of the display, too.

However, there’ll also be some China-exclusive apps and content, including digital magazine downloads from Trends and 100,000 free downloads of Fruit Ninja and PVZ through Nokia’s own app portal. Lumia buyers will get free access to FHM, Harper’s Bazaar and Esquire, too.

Nokia has also kicked off the Be Top developer campaign, in partnership with Microsoft, to find the next big thing in apps for China. Earlier this week the two companies announced their AppCampus developer school plans, with €18m of funding.

The remaining question is when other carriers – notably Verizon – will get access to the CDMA Windows Phones. So far T-Mobile USA has the Lumia 710 and AT&T will offer the Lumia 900 on April 8, but CDMA rivals have been left out in the cold with a far smaller range of Windows Phone 7 handsets to choose from.

The Nokia Lumia 800C will be priced at 3599RMB ($571) SIM-free when it goes on sale in China next month. No word on pricing for the Lumia 610C at this stage.

Sahas Katta got in touch with Ben Rudolph via email, and discovered that Microsoft had set aside the prize laptop and phone for him at the Santa Clara Microsoft Store. After talking to two managers at the store, he walked home with a special edition Hunger Games HP Folio 13 worth $1,049, and a $899 Nokia Lumia 800 bundle.

While Katta was happy to receive both prizes, it turns out he’s content with his existing equipment, so he decided to throw both the laptop and Windows Phone up on eBay. Both are available to bid on via auction, and all proceeds will go to charity.

In a nice little twist, Katta hasn’t chosen the charity: that will be up to Reddit, who are currently pitching various ideas in a thread. Although Ben Rudolph appears to have smoothed things over, he posted on Twitter yesterday afternoon that he “stand[s] behind “smoked by Windows Phone” wins (and losses) 100%”.

[via The Verge]

Like Nokia Drive and Nokia Music, the Transport Beta is intended as a value-add for those who opt for a Nokia-flavored Windows Phone. A free download, it offers walking, bus, metro and tube directions for multiple cities around the world.

When we installed, the app automatically located us in London, UK, and confirmed that it had Transport for London (TfL) data to work from. A list of other coverage is available too, with around 33 locations currently supported: cities include New York City, San Francisco, Boston, Helsinki, Denmark, Berlin and Greater Toronto, among others, and more are in the pipeline.

Your current location automatically populates the “From” field, with search for the “To” field that shows results – with their distance from you – as you type. Select one, and you have a grid of possible routes, organized by time. Scrolling right shows later routes, and you can pull the pane further right again to load even later journeys. Periods of walking, bus rides, train, and other elements are shown in different colors – the Tube lines match the official London color-scheme, for instance – and each shows the estimated duration.

One thing that wasn’t working at MWC was pinning a favorite route to the homescreen. That’s a matter of searching for a journey and then choosing “Pin to Start” from the pop-up menu; a new tile is added, which takes you directly to the latest transportation times.

It’s a slick little app, and since it’s based on official journey planner data you have the reassurance of knowing you’re getting the most accurate information. Many of the transportation providers themselves offer web-based planners, but they can be tricky to use while on the move in a phone browser; Nokia Transport Beta makes it as straightforward as driving directions in Nokia Drive.

You can find the Nokia Transport Beta download by visiting here on your Lumia. Let us know how you get on in the comments!

According to the research, 2.5% of UK consumers bought a Windows Phone handset compared to 2.4% for Symbian over a three month period that ended on February 19th. Not only that, but the Nokia Lumia 800 accounted for 87% of all Windows Phone sales in Europe. Windows Phone apparently does best in Germany, with it accounting for 3.1% of the market.

The stats also show results from operating systems like iOS and Android. In the UK, Apple has seen an increase from 22.7% a year ago to 28.7% today. Android, meanwhile, dominates the charts, owning 48.5% of the market, up from 37.8% this time last year.

Finally, British consumers are increasingly interested in buying smartphones, which accounted for 73.2% of phone sales over the past three months. Over half the population now reportedly owns a smartphone: 51.3%, to be precise.

[via Bloomberg]

The currently shipping Nokia Lumia 800 and 710 handsets are expected to receive the new tethering support sometime soon via an over-the-air Zune update. Although Nokia hasn’t announced a specific time frame, the update will likely arrive around or slightly before the Nokia Lumia 610 and 900 launch, since both devices will have the feature out of the box.

The Lumia 610 and 900 are expected to arrive in late March or early April. Recent rumors peg the 900 for either an April 8 or April 22 launch. Adding tethering support is a wise move for Nokia to stand out because many consumers demand it while the majority of Windows Phone devices currently do not have this hotspot functionality.

[via GottaBeMobile]

WPCentral is reporting that the update with a version number of 12070 is currently being pushed to Lumia 800s in Singapore. The update supposedly brings better battery performance, with claims of “nearly tripled” battery life. The phone has also been tweaked to draw just 70mA of power during idle time.

Other improvements are said to include refined screen brightness controls and adjusted white balance in the camera application. An issue relating to audio bass has also reportedly been rectified. Users on xda-developers have also uncovered references to new camera features, including a panarama mode, and a self timer, although these features aren’t yet available to use.

Currently the update is limited to Lumia 800s in Singapore, and there’s no indication yet on when Nokia plan to roll out this update to the rest of the world. Typically Nokia post any major updates to the Nokia Conversations blog, although there has been no mention of the 12070 update there yet.

[via intomobile]

The main loser, the analysts say, is HTC. Nokia and Microsoft’s broad promotional campaign for the Lumia devices saw them eat into HTC’s Windows Phones, which contributed to an overall 1.8m unit from non-Nokia OEMs.

“Nokia’s Microsoft smartphone growth during the quarter was achieved partly by capturing market share from HTC. This is a challenging development for HTC because it is also losing ground to Samsung in the Android segment. HTC is now at risk of being caught in a pincer movement between two giants of Samsung in Android and Nokia in Microsoft, and HTC must move with urgency to address the problem” Tom Kang, Director, Strategy Analytics

Still, it’s worth remembering that it’s some time since HTC outed a new Windows Phone, instead focusing on Android devices for the past few quarters. In fact, there has been little in the way of WP7 enthusiasm from OEMs outside of Nokia, aside from a flurry of OS upgrades when Microsoft pushed out the 7.5 Mango update late last year.

“Nokia is by no means out of the woods yet, and it is still on a long road to recovery, but capturing top spot in the Microsoft smartphone ecosystem is an encouraging baby-step forward for the company” Strategy Analytics conclude. The Finnish company is expected to reveal another two handsets at Mobile World Congress next, week, including a global version of the Lumia 900 and a new, budget device, believed to be the Lumia 610.

Economy of scale and a track-record of pumping out cheap phones that still maintained solid build quality was cited in Nokia’s initial Windows Phone announcement. Microsoft’s first generation of handsets, though reasonably broad in number, clustered around a mid- to high-tier price point, predominantly because of the software company’s own stringent specification requirements.

Microsoft knew it would need cheap Windows Phones to capture the entry-level market, users upgrading perhaps from feature-phones, and Nokia offered a gateway to that. The Lumia 710, though comparatively cheap for a Windows Phone 7 device versus what had gone before, was still targeting that middle tier, however.

There’s no doubting Nokia had an ambitious roadmap of devices to address that. Problem is, the playing field has evolved in the meantime, since that roadmap was drawn up. Symbian has been feasted upon by Android, cheap devices running Google’s platform being far more popular in markets traditionally welcoming to Symbian than Nokia had ever expected. That evolution in demand is likely to have an impact on revenues as early as this year, the company has warned.

Although the geeks and enthusiasts among us would love to see a true Nokia flagship Windows Phone – something with the bells & whistles to adequately compete with top-tier devices from Samsung, Apple and HTC – it’s the mass market that the company needs to tend to if it wants to turn about its dwindling fortunes. Despite a reasonable start to Lumia sales, erosion to Symbian holds the potential to undo all of Nokia’s good work.

According to Reuters, Nokia is indeed readying the Lumia 610 to do just that, though exact details of the new entry-level handset are still unclear. The 610 might struggle to hold the headlines at Mobile World Congress – the tech audience preferring to concentrate on more ambitious specifications – but if Nokia can price its new Lumia competitively, it stands a chance in the longer game. Previous leaks have tipped somewhere in the region of £100-150 (around $150-235), with a focus on the pre-pay market currently dominated by inexpensive Android handsets.

Not only would that be the cheapest Nokia Windows Phone so far, it would also present a significant challenge – and potentially open a new market – for other OEMs using Microsoft’s platform. Companies like HTC and Samsung have been somewhat coy about Nokia and Microsoft’s partnership, preferring to highlight the increased attention the Finns’ involvement brings to the OS, and the inevitable ad campaign for the Lumia 610 could well open them up a new price bracket to target too.

Nokia’s window of opportunity is small, though. The company needs to impress at Mobile World Congress, not just in its hardware, but in how it strategizes for the future. Slick polycarbonate casings and neat value-add apps are great, but it’ll take a bomb to the budget end of the market to secure Nokia’s bottom line.

Featured: Among our featured articles today are two columns from our opionated Chris Davies and Chris Burns. Read what Davies thinks about the latest privacy kerfuffles in his article You don’t care about privacy, and Burns dishes out the truth in his look at Google Chrome’s password generator, which he says tosses logic in the trash. Check out the columns and be sure, as always, to share your comments about whether or not you agree with our editors.

iPad and iPhone: If you haven’t been checking up on the latest iOS rumors every day like us, we’ve compiled a nice look at everything we’ve heard in an article titled The iPad 3 we know today. But if you’re more on an iPhone guy, we’ve also got something on the iPhone 5, which we hear is tipped for a September announcement. There’s always a new iOS gadget to be on the lookout for, and you know as soon as the iPad 3 is revealed, those iPhone 5 rumors are gonna ramp up with intensity.

Cool Stuff: Among the other interesting articles on SlashGear today: Gabe Newell of Valve speaks of futuristic wearable computers, Nokia Lumia 800 is jet fighter tough, survives Mach 5 wind tunnel test, Evrythng to connect physical objects to the Internet, and Pulse controller turns your desk into a drum set. That should be enough to keep you busy as you wrap up your day off. Be sure to check back tomorrow for Tuesday’s evening wrap-up.

MACH 5 is considered “hypersonic,” which is five times the speed of sound and generally translates to about 3000 miles per hour in aircrafts. The Nokia Lumia 800 impressively survived the extreme pressures from the test, suggesting that your important data on the device will surely survive a jet fighter nose dive or a catastrophic tornado even if you don’t.

The test really supports Nokia’s image for quality built hardware and its very first Windows Phone is indeed not only gorgeous but one very tough cookie. But perhaps it’d be more fun if NokNok threw in a couple other phones into the wind tunnel just for comparison’s sake.

The Nokia Lumia 800 Entertainment Bundle includes not only the lovely smartphone itself, but also a Nokia Purity HD Stereo Headset by Monster, a Nokia Luna Bluetooth Headset, and the Nokia Play 360 speaker, most all of which we’ve got some hands-on time before, so be sure to check those out in the links below.

This special bundle costs $899 but it’s available unlocked, meaning no contract’s required. You have the option to choose between a sleek black setup or the magenta-themed setup that comes with a white Play 360 speaker. Too bad for those pining for the turquoise version, but it’s nonetheless a great offer for the phone, two headsets, a portable speaker system, and all off-contract.

The bundle will cost $899 and includes a Nokia Play 360 Wireless Speaker, Purity HD Stereo headset, and an in-ear Bluetooth headset. Initially, the Lumia 800 will not be sold separately from the bundle, but will likely be made available on its own soon alongside the recently announced white edition.

The Lumia 800 is Nokia’s first Windows Phone and has been available in Europe for some time already. Make sure to check out our hands-on for more details. A larger version of the device with LTE support, called the Lumia 900, has been announced for AT&T later this year.

[via The Verge]

As the Finnish device manufacturer continues its all-out assault on the mobile market with colorful Windows Phone devices galore, we must expect that they’ll continue to bring the fury at the year’s largest mobile-centric conference. If what Forbes’ source says is true, the fourth in a series of fairly lovely and certainly strong Windows Phone Mango devices will be dropping in a big way. This far the Lumia 710 and 800 are on the market and the Lumia 900, revealed at CES 2012, will be on the market soon.

The Luma 910 is said to be a European version of the Lumia 900 complete with a few upgrades we’ve not yet seen on a Windows Phone / Nokia device. This device is said to have at least HSPA+ speeds and will have a massively impressive 12 megapixel camera on the back. Nokia’s press conference takes place on the 27th of February, the first morning of Mobile World Congress – and we’ll be there! Stick with us here on SlashGear via our [MWC 2012 portal] and get in on it first!

[via Forbes]

There’s been a leak of the omnipotent colorway everyone always seems to want, white, for the phone that’s coming down to crush us all: Nokia Lumia 900. The entire Canon PowerShot range has been overhauled to include Wifi, waterproofing, GPS, and a whole lot more. The titan known as Skyrim has been brought to a whole new level with the Skyrim Creation Kit for your PC. And if that weren’t enough, you’ll be able to play Skyrim on no less than a brand new Xbox 360 Kinect Star Wars kit starting on the 3rd of April!

There will be no Samsung Galaxy S III release in March. Verizon will be rebooting their double data promotion soon. It’s time to get giddy with Windows 8 gaming as its own line-up is revealed. The Apple iTV rumors continue, and HTC HERO FORCE is not the name for the studio HTC has created for its hero devices in 2012 – but I wish it was!

Like the white Nokia N9 before it, the white version of the Lumia 800 is gloss-finish rather than matte. That makes it a little more slippery to hold, though it’s still compact enough to grip neatly in one hand. Glossy phones are usually fingerprint magnets, but the white Nokia manages to hide them reasonably well.

Otherwise it’s the same Lumia 800 we know from before, so you get a 3.7-inch WVGA ClearBlack display, 8-megapixel Carl Zeiss camera with 720p HD video recording, and a 1.4GHz single-core Qualcomm processor. OS is Windows Phone 7.5 Mango, and Nokia preloads its Nokia Drive app for free turn-by-turn navigation, along with Nokia Music for free streaming music.

Nokia Lumia 800 White hands-on:

We asked Nokia whether the white Lumia 800 – and the which N9 before it – meant the company had a white version of the Lumia 900 in the pipeline, though it wouldn’t comment. Still, with the production process so similar for the slightly larger, LTE-equipped device, we really wouldn’t be surprised to see a white Lumia 900 show up later in 2012.

Until then, we’ll have to make do with the white 800, though that’s no great hardship. It’s set to go on sale sometime in February, country and network depending.

The white Lumia 800 will follow in the footsteps of the white Nokia N9 – shown above – which went on sale in certain markets back in December. Like the N9, the Lumia was originally shown in just three colors, though the CNC’d polycarbonate manufacturing process lends itself to any hue that the raw plastic can be supplied in.

Nokia will also launch the Lumia 800 in the US come February, though the handset will be supplied direct from the Finns rather than through a carrier with subsidy. Pricing hasn’t been confirmed, but CEO Stephen Elop made no mention of the white model being included in the line-up of unlocked options.

More on the Lumia 800 in our full review of the smartphone. It’s unclear whether Nokia will release the upcoming AT&T Lumia 900 in white eventually. We’ve got a request in for more information from Nokia, and will update when we know more.

[via The Australian]

Without that final point-of-sale touch, all else will certainly fail, at least that’s what Nokia’s top minds seem to be saying this week. Though the devices are perfectly legitimate in their build and execution, and the advertisements surrounding them may be lovely, there’s always a third step that must be taken. Elop said thusly this week in Nokia’s sales call:

“We need to increase the engagement of the retail sales associates in the stores, because it is the retail associate who speaks with our consumers and puts the Lumia device in their hands. For example, in the United Kingdom, where competitive ecosystems are firmly entrenched, we have seen mixed retail execution around Lumia devices with a range of results among different locations, different chains, different stores and so on.” – Elop

What do you think, average citizen? Do you think it’s the final step that’s most important to your deciding on which device to pick up? Or are you the sort of person who reads reviews on the internet and heads to the store with your cash in hand? What about your relatives, your mothers and fathers, your grandmas and grandpas? Who do you think they pay the most attention to when picking up a brand new smartphone?

To recap: Nokia and Microsoft shake hands and agree to make the beast with polycarbonate backs in February 2011, shelving MeeGo and confirming that the end is nigh for Symbian. The news prompts months of speculation and will-they-deliver-on-time controversy, until Nokia World 2011 in October and the unveil of the Lumia 800 and Lumia 710, only slightly blunted by Nokia reusing the industrial design for its de-facto flagship from the N9 several months before.

Fast forward to today, and Nokia has its all-important sales figures for the new Lumia devices – “well over 1m” in a little over two months of availability – and plenty of bad news too. Loses nearing a billion Euros, device sales down 29-percent, and Nokia making less on each smartphone it sells. Meanwhile the developing market Steven Elop had counted on providing the Symbian long-tail decided to rebuff the offer of cheap Nokia smartphones in favor of cheap Android ones instead.

The market has spoken, anyway: Nokia’s share price is up over 4-percent today, though you’d still struggle to confuse it with that of Apple or Samsung. Windows Phone has an above-average track record of striking a chord among tech reviewers, and that – taken with the fact that many have a soft-spot for Nokia, and that the Lumia 800/900 are genuinely tactile, delightfully designed phones – has resulted in a shiver of positivity despite the diarrhea of cash.

It gets harder from here, though. To succeed at this point, Nokia had to show up with a device or two, get them onto the market before the end of 2011 so as to prove its new CEO could keep his word, and sell more than a handful. Three boxes ticked. But Nokia has plucked a lot of the low-hanging fruit now: the true “Nokia faithful” have gone out and grabbed their slice of Finnish history, and much of what’s left is a market obsessed with Apple and Android.

It’s also unfamiliar territory for the company. In the past, Nokia has had both unique hardware and software to rely on: after a few tentative – and quickly aborted – attempts to use Symbian by other firms, the Finns were pretty much left to their own devices. Now Nokia faces not only Android and iPhone, but a raft of other Windows Phone OEMs keen to make some return on the licensing and marketing budgets Microsoft has squeezed out of them. If it makes a success of Windows Phone, if all those color-block adverts promoting the platform take hold, there’s no guarantee that the WIndows Phone shoppers leave the store with will necessarily have a Nokia logo on it.

Apathy works in its favor; HTC, Samsung, LG and others are all distracted by their Android investment, whereas Nokia knows its future is dependent on Windows Phone clawing market share. The risk of failure is obviously higher, too.

Nokia’s strength has always been in economy of scale: making lots of devices that use the same core hardware and driving down pricing that way. As its Windows Phone effort ramps up, there’s a decent chance that will increase gross margin per handset. Still, it needs demand to justify producing warehouses full of Lumias, and that means a compelling range for the US, Europe and Far East markets where smartphone choice has us jaded, along with affordable models for developing markets that, crucially, won’t cannibalize cheaper device sales too quickly.

Mobile World Congress is late next month, and Nokia is likely to have at least one more Windows Phone to show us. Shortly after that, the Lumia 900 will launch on AT&T and give the US its first decent taste of Nokia in some time. We’ve already said our piece on why AT&T should go against form and hammer down the sticker price of the LTE Lumia if it wants to stand a chance at getting traction.

Wielding a firehose of cash that’s gushing like a sick snake isn’t a great way to begin 2012, but Nokia has had it worse. This time last year, for instance, it had slumping profits and nothing compelling in its line-up whatsoever. The end is nowhere near in sight, but then again it never really is: there’s always something shinier and cleverer just around the corner. If Nokia can grab even a minority share of that roller-coaster then its prospects are good.

Overall sales of devices were down 29-percent year-on-year, with “smart device” shipments down to 19.6m units from 28.6m a year ago. Gross margin on smartphones also dived, from 28.7-percent to 19.9-percent, though Nokia did at least curtail its smartphone expenses by over €150m.

“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″ Stephen Elop, CEO, Nokia

Meanwhile, Symbian devices are facing issues of their own, with the developing markets that have previously flocked to Nokia’s cheaper handsets now looking elsewhere. “Changing market conditions are putting increased pressure on Symbian” Elop says, pointing out that in “certain markets, there has been an acceleration of the anticipated trend towards lower-priced smartphones with specifications that are different from Symbian’s traditional strengths.”

That will mean Symbian demand will tail off quicker than Nokia originally expected, and the company isn’t making any 2012 predictions because of the instability of the market.

Elop says to look to the Lumia 900, announced earlier this month and expected to hit AT&T in the US on March 18 for a competitive $99.99 with a new agreement, to renew its challenge to the market. Whether investors and staff have the stomach to go along for the ride remains to be seen.

Update: Nokia tells us that the “well over 1 million” figure for Lumia sales is to-date, as in including January 2012, rather than solely for Q4 2011.

In fact, Nokia’s much-vaunted Lumia 800 promotional push failed to get it into the top ten smartphones chart in the UK in Q4, the research firm reckons. It’s possible that Microsoft, Nokia and the carriers need to look to RIM and the BlackBerry sales strategy to win sales: 57-percent of BlackBerry handsets were bought as gifts in Q4, rising to 76-percent during December specifically, something likely down to competitive price plans and pre-paid availability appealing to the youth market. 55-percent of BlackBerry gift recipients were apparently under the age of 16.

“Apple has continued its strong sales run in the US, UK and Australia over the Christmas period” Dominic Sunnebo, global consumer insight director at Kanta Worldpanel ComTech said. ”Overall, Apple sales are now growing at a faster rate than Android across the nine countries we cover.”

Apple market share rose from 22-percent to 34-percent year-on-year in the UK. However, Android is making strides in developing markets, with Brazil and Mexico seeing significant demand and that only likely to increase as low-cost handsets from vendors like ZTE and Huawei push pricing under the $100 mark.

The success for Apple comes shortly after the company announced a new record for quarterly revenues. Apple sold over 37m iPhones in the three month period.

[via Reuters]

Nokia continues to stay quiet on Lumia sales figures, leaving supply chain checks and retailer feedback to give only a vague hint at how well the devices are performing. The more glowing estimates may not have been entirely a reflection on the strength of Nokia’s own range, however; “there weren’t a lot of the hero handsets out there” Jefferies International analyst Lee Simpson suggested of the market as a whole. “HTC were struggling, RIM didn’t have a show-me device, Sony Ericsson and Motorola weren’t really stepping into the mix, so there was probably enough space for Nokia to be able to point to fourth- quarter numbers they were happy with.”

Meanwhile, the cost of the Lumia 800, the first of Nokia’s Windows Phones to hit the market back in November 2011, may have proved a turn-off for would-be buyers. “What’s really needed is cheaper models to compensate for the declining trend in Symbian” FIM Bank analyst Michael Schroeder suggests, “which sold in large numbers in the main smartphone category of 200 to 300 euros.”

As for the N9, while Nokia has said it holds little ambition for MeeGo, the collaborative project between it and Intel – and which has now been at least partially folded into Tizen - sales of the smartphone are expected to be surprisingly healthy given its limited availability. Pareto Oehman analyst Helena Nordman-Knutson estimates as many as 1.4m N9 units may have been sold in 2011, with the MeeGo device – which we reviewed here - on sale since September though not in key markets like the US and UK.

Even if channel shipments are healthy, there are suggestions that carriers themselves have been disappointed with demand. Reports surfaced earlier this month, claiming the operators had been pressuring Nokia to reduce prices so as to stimulate demand. Back at CES, the company revealed its first LTE Windows Phone, the Lumia 900, though the handset isn’t expected to go on sale until March.

Nokia will announce its quarterly financial results this week, on Thursday January 26, with all eyes on Windows Phone performance.

Here in the states, you can grab yourself a Lumia 710 for free on contract, though we certainly shouldn’t have expected much of a different strategy over the pond. We’re talking here then about on-contract devices, but also the common release of the off-contract phone (much more common over the pond, for you USA citizens.) Sources speaking with FT say that the 710 is likely to be sold on contract phones at about £20 a month, just a bit cheaper than the original £25 recommendation by Nokia.

Will you pick one up, ladies and gentlemen? Or do you already have the larger Lumia? Or perhaps you live here in the USA where the Lumia 900 is going to be dropped sooner than later. Windows Phone is going to get into your hands on the Lumia ship one way or another, that’s the plan!

[via FT]

Neither A&T nor Nokia would be drawn on exactly how much the Lumia 900 will cost when it eventually goes on sale. Going by previous LTE smartphones, however, $199.99 with a new, two-year agreement and mandatory 4G data plan would on the fact of it seem most likely.

Still, AT&T is working hard to push LTE down through the price range. The Pantech Burst and Samsung Exhilarate didn’t exactly grab attention like the Lumia did, but AT&T has promised them for $50 apiece (again, with contract). 2012 may well end up being the year for relatively affordable LTE devices after all.

Will any of those be bearing the Nokia logo, however? The Finnish company has been ambitious with its Lumia 800 pricing in Europe, undercutting Android and iOS rivals and negotiating decent subsidies with networks to make the Windows Phone more affordable. As an exclusive on AT&T, however – something both companies have repeated ad-nauseum – there’s always the suspicion that the carrier will use that rarity to milk subscribers of a little extra cash.

That would potentially be death to Nokia’s chances in the US market, however. It may still be the number one mobile phone company in the world, but Nokia’s standing in the US is embryonic at best; if AT&T slaps a $200 tag on the Lumia 900 it’ll lose a huge chunk of potential audience who might be willing to give Windows Phone a punt. Offer it for $100, however, and all of a sudden there’s a lot more appeal. Do the unthinkable and opt for free-on-contract – just as the 800 is sold in many European countries – and you could have a real success on your hands.

Nokia has long made a point of highlighting its supply chain and experience in producing hardware, which combine to help the company drive down prices. Stephen Elop has even recently namechecked that as a reason why selling off its smartphone division to Microsoft simply wouldn’t make sense.

Now it’s time for Nokia to put its potency to work. It has one chance to storm the US market and convince analysts, investors, geeks and consumers that it has caught up with its rivals, and a bulging marketing budget isn’t enough, on its own, to do that. Price the AT&T Lumia 900 right, and Nokia could take its first step on a comeback campaign it’s been paying lip-service to for months.

Nokia Lumia 900 hands-on:

That will change in time, and eventually all Windows Phones should be able to join in the fun. Still, it’s a sign that Nokia is playing things seriously with Lumia, not just treating Android and iOS as the competition but making an early play against others using Microsoft’s OS.

Joining the ESPN sports hub on Lumia devices will be the CNN App for Windows Phones – exclusive to Nokia users for 90 days – and the Univision App. That, too, will be exclusive to Nokia Lumia owners in the US and Puerto Rico, this time for 18 months, with Spanish-language content.

The Nokia Lumia 800 will be available on its own, and also in a bundle with the Nokia Play 360 Speakers and the Nokia Purity by Monster headset. The phone will be available in black, cyan and magenta, as in Europe. No word on pricing at this stage.

More on the Nokia Lumia 800 in our full review, and on the AT&T Lumia 900 LTE in our hands-on from CES.

An image purportedly of the AT&T Ace leaked last week, showing the carrier’s logo as well as a 4G icon and front-facing camera. The assumption is that the Ace 900 will be one of AT&T’s first 4G LTE Windows Phones, tipped to go on sale sometime prior to the middle of 2012.

Other specs include 512MB of RAM and – despite a presumed carrier lock to AT&T – the inclusion of the 1700MHz band necessary for 3G on T-Mobile USA. The device is supposedly codenamed “Eloko” and will ship running Windows Phone 7.5 Mango, rather than Tango as some earlier rumors indicated.

Pocketnow threw together a size comparison mockup based on leaked dimension details of the Lumia 900, next to the existing 800, which you can see below.

The iPhone 4S can be seen significantly surpassing the Lumia 800 in performance in all tests, which include Browsermark tests, Speed Reading test, Sunspider, Acid3, and HTML5. The iPhone 4 also didn’t do too shabby, beating the Lumia 800 by a smaller margin in most of the browser tests.

The iPhone 4 is running iOS 4.3 while the iPhone 4S is running iOS 5. The tester notes that with the Speed Reading Test, iOS 5 on the iPhone 4 gives it a big boost up in speed. You can take a look at the video for yourself or catch the complete scores below. A higher number is better in most of the tests, except for the Sunspider Test where a lower number is better.

iPhone 4 – iOS 4.3
Nokia Lumia 800 – WP 7.5 (aka Mango)
iPhone 4S – iOS 5

Browsermark Test: Higher is better
iPhone 4 (iOS 4.3) – 37 503
Nokia Lumia 800 (WP7.5 aka Mango) – 30 452
iPhone 4S (iOS 5) – 86 702

Speed Reading Test:
iPhone 4 (iOS 4.3) – 2 fps (iPhone 4 with iOS 5.0 – around 37 fps)
Nokia Lumia 800 (WP7.5 aka Mango) – 40 fps
iPhone 4S (iOS 5) – 60 fps

Sunspider Test: Lower is better
iPhone 4 (iOS 4.3) – 4018.2 ms
Nokia Lumia 800 (WP7.5 aka Mango) – 7188.7 ms
iPhone 4S (iOS 5) – 2266 ms

Acid3 Test:
iPhone 4 (iOS 4.3) – 100/100
Nokia Lumia 800 (WP7.5 aka Mango) – 100/100
iPhone 4S (iOS 5) – 100/100

HTML5 Test:
iPhone 4 (iOS 4.3) – 210
Nokia Lumia 800 (WP7.5 aka Mango) – 141
iPhone 4S (iOS 5) – 296

[via MyNokiaBlog]