AT&T Launching Another Windows Phone 4G LTE Device
While Verizon Wireless talks vaguely about new Windows Phones sometime in the Windows Phone "8" timeframe, AT&T keeps rolling out new devices.
Today, AT&T announced another Windows device on its 4G LTE network -- the Samsung Focus 2, which will be available on May 20.
The Samsung Focus was reportedly the most popular of the Windows Phone 7 devices (for what that was worth). Samsung had already rolled out an upgraded phone, the Samsung Focus S to coincide with the Windows Phone 7.5 "Mango" release. So in effect, this is the third generation Focus for the Windows Phone platform.
Specifics of the device are a relatively low price tag ($49.99 with a two-year contract), a 4-inch Super AMOLED screen, a 5-megapixel camera and a front-facing VGA camera. It's available in white.
For AT&T the biggest significance is that the Samsung Focus 2 is the third device on its 4G LTE network, joining the $99 Nokia Lumia 900 and the $199 HTC Titan II (both prices are with two-year contracts). Salesperson incentives in AT&T stores also seem to be trickling down to some actual store-level enthusiasm, as my colleague Keith Ward recently noted.
Will AT&T's big push funded by Nokia via Microsoft start making a difference this quarter? Only the numbers will tell, and even if Microsoft turns in another lackluster quarter in terms of smartphone sales, I don't suspect Microsoft will be deterred. Microsoft's pockets are deep, and management has obviously concluded that smartphones are too strategic to abandon without a lengthy fight.
Posted by Scott Bekker on May 07, 2012