Lumia 900 is now AT&T's exclusive Company-Use Phone

Unknown-One

Unknown-One

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You read that right. The Lumia 900 is now AT&T's company-use phone.

What does that mean exactly? AT&T provides their employees with certain company-use phone models for free; formerly this included the iPhone and some Android handsets.

Seems those are off the table, and the Lumia 900 will be their exclusive company-use phone. Nokia expects more than 80% of AT&T employees to be using a Lumia 900 thanks to this program.

(employees can still pick any phone they want and receive a moderate discount, but it sounds like the Lumia 900 will be the only one they're offered for free)

More information here: http://www.wpcentral.com/report-nokia-paying-att-exclusive-employee-use-lumia-900
 
Wow. Good news indeed.

Been using the 900 for couple days now, and it is really good.
 
I wonder how much this will cost out of contract. I also wonder what AT&Ts ETF is these days.
 
Not a big at&t person and I use android but I am really glad to see atleast one carrier taking wp7 seriously. They literally have like 5 times as many wp7 handsets as any other carrier.
 
I can't imagine it would be that high. A Galaxy Nexus from Verizon was $650 at launch off contract.
 
kirbyrj said:
I can't imagine it would be that high. A Galaxy Nexus from Verizon was $650 at launch off contract.
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Guys... an unlocked Lumia 800 goes for $500, and it has a smaller screen, no front facing camera, and doesn't support 4G.

The an unlocked Lumia 900 is going to cost more than an unlocked Lumia 800, so $600+ sounds about right to me.
 
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Well according to rumors, from ATT on contact is $99 and off contract $499. I'm guessing it will be $199 with $100 rebate so $99 after rebate.
 
Unknown-One said:
Guys... an unlocked Lumia 800 goes for $500, and it has a smaller screen, no front facing camera, and doesn't support 4G.

The an unlocked Lumia 900 is going to cost more than an unlocked Lumia 800, so $600+ sounds about right to me.
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Though they saved a few bucks by going with a non-curved screen and not including headphones and a case in the box. My guess is $550.
 
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blackhand1001 said:
Not a big at&t person and I use android but I am really glad to see atleast one carrier taking wp7 seriously. They literally have like 5 times as many wp7 handsets as any other carrier.
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I'm sure they are being compensated for it, and frankly Microsoft probably should have worked something out like this earlier. The biggest problem with Windows Phone is that no one who knows phones wants to give it a chance and the salespeople who can sell it to people who don't already have an opinion made about what to use don't promote it because no one is asking for it.
 
Ryokurin said:
I'm sure they are being compensated for it, and frankly Microsoft probably should have worked something out like this earlier. The biggest problem with Windows Phone is that no one who knows phones wants to give it a chance and the salespeople who can sell it to people who don't already have an opinion made about what to use don't promote it because no one is asking for it.
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Yeah, I remember when I went to get my Titan, the employee seemed to have no clue about WP7. Its funny how almost everywhere I go people ask "What phone is that?". Once they see some of the cool features of WP7 and how fast it runs, they all leave with a different opinion of what a Windows Mobile/Phone device really is.
 
enyownz said:
Well according to rumors, from ATT on contact is $99 and off contract $499. I'm guessing it will be $199 with $100 rebate so $99 after rebate.
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Microsoft wants WP out there, I doubt that they will insist on any kind of rebates to make it more complicated. Basically WP pricing now works this way: Nokia creates a handset at some price. Microsoft decides at which price that phone should be available to the consumer and shops around for a carrier (ATT being the only logical choice there really). Then Microsoft asks ATT how much they would need to receive the phone from Nokia for in order to make it work on their end. Then Microsoft pays Nokia the difference between cost and what ATT pays.

Unrelated, those who already have the 900 in hand, can you confirm/deny that ATT didn't push the 8107 OS version out to the units? Which version is running on your 900?
 
Thuleman said:
(ATT being the only logical choice there really)
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Why? They have ~32% of the mobile market, and I doubt very few will jump carriers at the expense of a ETF in order to get this phone... so again, why does it make sense to restrict yourself to one carrier if you're trying to grow market share in an arena that already has very competitive offerings? Apple could do this with the iPhone because there really wasn't much competition in the consumer smartphone area at the time. So why not go to the other carriers as well where the remaining 68% of customers are? At the very least, offer it on TMo as well- another GSM carrier... yeah, they don't have LTE (yet), but it's not like ATT's LTE network is very expansive either.
 
Thuleman said:
Microsoft wants WP out there, I doubt that they will insist on any kind of rebates to make it more complicated. Basically WP pricing now works this way: Nokia creates a handset at some price. Microsoft decides at which price that phone should be available to the consumer and shops around for a carrier (ATT being the only logical choice there really). Then Microsoft asks ATT how much they would need to receive the phone from Nokia for in order to make it work on their end. Then Microsoft pays Nokia the difference between cost and what ATT pays.

Unrelated, those who already have the 900 in hand, can you confirm/deny that ATT didn't push the 8107 OS version out to the units? Which version is running on your 900?
Click to expand...

iirc, 8xxx is shipping with the 900. Other devices, like the Focus, Focus S, Quantum, Surround, Titan, will NOT be recieving the update, according to AT&T (find the link on wpcentral).
 
Thuleman said:
Unrelated, those who already have the 900 in hand, can you confirm/deny that ATT didn't push the 8107 OS version out to the units? Which version is running on your 900?
Click to expand...

My ATT 900 is running latest release 8107, but I've seen reports of them having 8112 as well.


ATT reps confirmed OS: 7.10.8112.7 though.
 
marshac said:
Why? They have ~32% of the mobile market, and I doubt very few will jump carriers at the expense of a ETF in order to get this phone... so again, why does it make sense to restrict yourself to one carrier if you're trying to grow market share in an arena that already has very competitive offerings? Apple could do this with the iPhone because there really wasn't much competition in the consumer smartphone area at the time. So why not go to the other carriers as well where the remaining 68% of customers are? At the very least, offer it on TMo as well- another GSM carrier... yeah, they don't have LTE (yet), but it's not like ATT's LTE network is very expansive either.
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You gotta start somewhere, and that's the biggest piece of the pie available right now, as Verizon has already made it clear that they can keep walking. Going after Sprint and TMO right now is thinking small, which they can't afford to do right now. If they can prove that it's a solid seller on #2, then #1, #3 and #4 won't have any real legs to stand on skipping the next phones.
 
Even though this is almost unrelated, the damn OS updates is why I would *NEVER* buy a Windows Phone again (bought three already, lol. Focus, S, and Titan), unless if it was directly from Nokia (since they are putting out the most for it, Nokia Drive being the biggest deal to me) or MSFT direct. Even then, I'd try to get one that avoid's AT&T's network.

I don't care whos fault it is, or what's causing it, but the lack of any post mango (especially the KB fix - dissappearing KB happened on all three of my devices when I had them all) update is a serious turn off for me. I thought MS had specifically, "learned from Android," with reguards to carrier controlled updates, however, they haven't. I couldn't give a flying care that MSFT+WP7 is teeny compared to Apple, but at least Apple is doing it right. Hell, Google can get some of the Nexus phones to get updates (even if it's subverting the carriers), which is already much better than WP7.

WP7 is almost getting to the worst of both worlds, not the balance between iOS and Android that was first imagined.


EDIT: and it turns out, the other methods (reg edit, xap sender, network disconnect) either no longer work, or have a chance of bollarding your phone against future updates (and you'd have to manually do it all over again.... and also assuming it doesn't stop you from getting firmware/manuf. updates).
 
jeremyshaw said:
Even then, I'd try to get one that avoid's AT&T's network.
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Considering they have the worst data deals, i'm sure many would do the same-

TMo- 5GB 4G, but unlimited slower
Sprint- Unlimited but slowish
VZW- Double data makes them much more competitive to AT&T on price
AT&T- $30/3GB, $50/5GB, pretty lame LTE deployment so far, esp in the PNW
 
jeremyshaw said:
Even though this is almost unrelated, the damn OS updates is why I would *NEVER* buy a Windows Phone again (bought three already, lol. Focus, S, and Titan), unless if it was directly from Nokia (since they are putting out the most for it, Nokia Drive being the biggest deal to me) or MSFT direct. Even then, I'd try to get one that avoid's AT&T's network.
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Yeah, the fault here rests with AT&T. The post-mango updates are already totally ready to go, but AT&T isn't sending them out. There are options for circumventing the carrier, though.

Just a quick rundown:
- All LG phones have a built-in registry editor, just set your "MobileOperator" to "000" and the update service will act like the phone is unlocked.
- 1st gen Samsung phones can be flashed to an unlocked ROM, which will get updates directly from Microsoft.
- All Samsung phones (1st and 2nd gen) can be interop-unlocked using "WindowBreak," which then allows you to side-load a registry editor and set your "MobileOperator" to "000" so the update service will act like the phone is unlocked.
- 1st gen HTC phones can be flashed to an unlocked ROM, which will get updates directly from Microsoft.
- 2nd gen HTC phones need a legitimate developer unlock, but once you have that, you can side-load and get the phone interop-unlocked, get a registry editor, and set your "MobileOperator" to "000" so the update service will act like the phone is unlocked.
- Nokia phones are slightly out of luck at the moment if you get a carrier-locked phone. Other OEMs included exploitable drivers and diagnostic applications. No exploits have been found for Nokia yet.

- Solution that works across the board: don't buy the phone from AT&T, buy an unlocked handset outright so you'll always get updates without the carrier's BS. Most expensive option, though...


We currently have four AT&T-branded Samsung Focus handset's in our house (1st gen Samsung), so I switched all their MobileOperator registry keys over from "ATT-US" to "ROG-CA" (Rogers, Canada). They now get updates pretty much on day-one. :D
Hopefully AT&T treats the Lumia 900 a bit nicer... it's a flagship phone and they've basically declared it the official company phone.

Edit: It's also possible AT&T isn't approving the current hotfixes because a major update (Windows Phone code name "Tango") is on the way, and it includes all previous hotfixes.
 
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^^ I thought the reg edit for Sammies no longer worked after NoDo?

I'll look into the unlocked ROM, since I don't even like the garishly orange AT&T start screen.
Thank you!
 
jeremyshaw said:
^^ I thought the reg edit for Sammies no longer worked after NoDo?

I'll look into the unlocked ROM, since I don't even like the garishly orange AT&T start screen.
Thank you!
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The regedits still work fine for getting phones to update to build 8107. I can give you a guide for getting your particular handset unlocked and updated without flashing the whole thing, if you like.

I recommend you just do the regedit and update normally, it's way safer and you still end up Developer-Unlocked and Interop-Unlocked.

If you want to flash a whole new ROM (which will also grant you a FULL-Unlock with root access), you'll have to check which version of the phone you have. There are two versions of the original Samsung Focus (v1.3 and v1.4) and they need different ROMs. If you have a v1.3 Focus like me, then I recommend this ROM
 
egh, I took to using the Rodgers version for my 1.3 HW. Works out the best, no AT&T logo, all updates (so far) came, so now I have 8107, and a KB that stops having a mind of it's own :)


Thank you!


I'm still arguing it's ridiculous AT&T is holding back updates, and in my view, the US WP7 platform. Reguardless if updates are "comming out soon," (since they always are, in this mobile market), there is simply no excuse on cutting back on major updates like these.
 
yeah, the Rogers ROM for the Samsung Focus is pretty much "straight from Microsoft" with practically no modification at all. Good choice there :)

And I agree 100% about AT&T, they need to stay on top of updates. Other carriers (especially those outside the US) don't seem to have this problem...
 
ATT is the shittiest carrier for updates.

They do the same shit for Android and Blackberry OS. Only Apple has ATT by the balls.
 
wrxdrunkie said:
I wonder how much this will cost out of contract.
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Finally got official figures out of AT&T for the Lumia 900 and the HTC Titan II

Lumia 900: $99 on-contract, $449 off-contract.
HTC Titan II: $199 on-contract, $549 off-contract.
 
Unknown-One said:
Finally got official figures out of AT&T for the Lumia 900 and the HTC Titan II

Lumia 900: $99 on-contract, $449 off-contract.
HTC Titan II: $199 on-contract, $549 off-contract.
Click to expand...

Were you able to get a release date on the Titan II by chance?
 
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