Watch out, Apple. Nokia and AT&T have teamed up for the launch of the Lumia 900. “At all levels, this is a notch above anything we’ve ever done, [including the launch of the iPhone],” AT&T device head Jeff Bradley said in an interview with CNET. This includes a huge TV marketing campaign and prime placement for signage in AT&T stores for about 6 to 8 weeks leading up to the launch.
Remember the Lumia 710? Me neither, though it’s apparently quite a hit in Canada, if selling “quite a few” can be construed as a good business metric. AT&T didn’t seem to care much for it, but Bradley claims the 900 is an effective re-launch of the Nokia brand. The Lumia will run the Windows Phone platform, giving both Microsoft and Nokia something to root for in the coming months. CNET’s review seems pretty favorable, but the consumers will vote with their wallets, and it remains to be seen if a phone running a relatively lackluster OS can compete with Apple and the iPhone.
Strangely, I hope that Apple actually does get some competition from Nokia here. Not because I feel that they’re stagnant or the iPhone is lackluster in any way. But competition is always good, and frankly, there isn’t any hardware competition for the iPhone right now. (I said hardware, not software.)
