Nokia Will Soon Bring Lumia To Verizon As It Builds Carrier And App Support

forbes.com : Nokia’s Lumia line could have a much bigger presence in the U.S. market soon. The company’s vice president of Worldwide Developer Relations, Richard Kerris, revealed in an interview with Neowin that a Lumia device could soon be on its way to the nation’s largest wireless carrier, Verizon.

With AT&T and T-Mobile already offering the Lumia 900 and Lumia 710 respectively, adding Verizon could help Nokia’s addressable market in the U.S surge by more than 80%.
However, Nokia faces an uphill task against the two well-entrenched ecosystems of Apple and Google to create a niche for itself and Microsoft. Nonetheless, more carrier partnerships and better app support to drive the Lumia sales will be key to its resurgent hopes.
We have a $5 price estimate for Nokia, more than 50% ahead of the current market price.

Nokia has the carriers’ backing
The need for more competition in the smartphone market, not only in terms of hardware but also software, is being increasingly felt by both customers and carriers alike. A competitive third mobile ecosystem will increase the number of choices for customers and foster innovation in the industry. More competition will also put less burden on the carriers who are increasingly feeling the pinch of smartphone subsidies on their margins. It is no wonder therefore that wireless carriers in both the U.S. and China have jumped on Nokia’s latest offerings to counter the growing dominance of Android and iOS in both these markets.

In the U.S., AT&T is backing the Lumia, affording the phone a “hero” status at its stores and making it the exclusive free phone for all AT&T employees to generate awareness. This means that the Lumia is not only benefiting from a greater marketing push from its founding partners but also the second largest national carrier.
With recent reports about the Lumia 900 doing well at AT&T after the steady start at T-Mobile, Nokia’s U.S. plans seem to be working for now. Bringing in more CDMA-based carriers like Verizon and Sprint into its fold will be the next step in Nokia’s gradual plans to penetrate the U.S. market.

While Nokia doesn’t have a CDMA handset available in the U.S., it has already released one in China, the Lumia 800C, on China Telecom, and so it’s only a matter of time before the customized handsets are available on the CDMA networks in the U.S. as well. It is however likely that these will make an appearance only when the new Lumia devices on Windows Phone 8 are ready.

source :  http://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2012/07/16/nokia-will-soon-bring-lumia-to-verizon-as-it-builds-carrier-and-app-support/