NEW YORK — Verizon Wireless, the largest cellphone carrier in the U.S., on Monday said it will sell a Nokia phone for the first time in years, lending support to the embattled Finnish company’s turnaround effort.
Verizon said it will be the only carrier to sell the Lumia 822, part of Nokia Corp.’s lineup of smartphones based on Microsoft’s Windows software. The company didn’t provide the launch date or price. Verizon rivals AT&T and T-Mobile USA started selling Lumia phones earlier this year.
Even though it was, until recently, the world’s largest maker of phones, Nokia has been largely absent from the U.S. market for many years. Its early smartphones never caught on in the country, and it was virtually shut out once the iPhone launched in 2007. Analysts see the new Windows smartphones as Nokia’s last chance to arrest its sales slide, but it’s hampered by the low uptake of Windows phones in general — Microsoft’s market share in smartphones is minuscule compared to Google Inc., with its Android software, and Apple Inc.
The Lumia 822 will run Windows Phone 8. Microsoft Corp. is holding an event Monday in San Francisco to officially launch the successor to Windows Phone 7, but the first phones with the software are not expected for a few weeks. AT&T has said it will sell two Nokia models with Windows Phone 8.
Windows 8 for PCs has borrowed its look from Windows Phone, meaning Microsoft now has a unified look across PCs, tablets and phones. The company has also made it easy for developers to create software that runs on all three platforms with minor modifications.
Verizon Wireless a joint venture of Verizon Communications Inc. and Vodafone Group PLC of Britain.
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