Microsoft executive vice president and former Nokia CEO Stephen Elop announced during his CTIA Super Mobility Week keynote on Tuesday afternoon that AT&T Wireless will sell the Nokia Lumia 830—Microsoft's new "affordable flagship"—in time for the holiday season.
This partially explains why Microsoft was so cagey with me when I asked about US availability of the newly-announced Nokia Lumias: US availability was awaiting future announcement(s). You may recall that, after being told that the device wasn't coming to the US, the Nokia web site noted that it was.
While there are still tons of questions—"when?" and "how much?" spring to mind instantly—AT&T says that further details on pricing and availability will be announced at a later date.
"The Lumia 830 features the best of Lumia and the latest from Microsoft in our thinnest, lightest design," a Microsoft representative told me. "Features include a 10-megapixel PureView camera with ZEISS optics, Rich Recording and our thinnest optical image stabilization system to date; and flagship Lumia innovations such as integrated wireless charging, Optical Image Stabilization and SensorCore – all in a pocket-friendly design and price. With an ultra-sleek, 8.5 mm thin metal and polycarbonate design with changeable back covers in bright green, bright orange, black and white and a 5-inch ClearBlack display, it's pre-loaded Microsoft services including Microsoft Office and the latest version of Windows Phone 8.1 with Lumia Denim, and comes with 15GB of OneDrive storage."
As I noted in Thinking About Microsoft's New Lumias recently, Windows Phone fan(atic)s in the United States are getting increasingly edgy about the lack of a new flagship device. The most recent such device, the Lumia Icon, shipped this spring, but only on Verizon. AT&T hasn't seen a new flagship since the Lumia 1520, which arrived last November. (And don't get us started with T-Mobile or Sprint.)
The Lumia 830 is not a true flagship device. But by bringing many flagship features down to the midmarket, this device is, I think, and important one. I'm very eager to spend some serious time with it after just a brief one-hour hands-on experience a few weeks back.
More news as it comes in. But I'll take mine in green, thanks.
