While the Nokia Lumia 920 is still king of the Nokia Windows Phone 8 world, the Nokia Lumia 820 is certainly a solid choice if you are looking for a mid-range device. One of the features that sets the Nokia apart from other handsets in their class is their swappable plastic shell.  Most phones only allow you to customize the look of your phone with different cases, but Nokia allows you to replace the entire shell giving you a truly “unique” look.

Getting new “looks” is as a simple as heading over to your local retailer and buying one, right? Actually Nokia is making things even easier then that, if you happen to have a 3D Printer. Nokia has just dropped a 3D Printing Development Kit available for download.  It contains everything you’ll need to make your own shells, “3D templates, case specs, recommended materials and best practices.”

Do you think this will be the beginning of a new trend in accessorizing? What do you think about Nokia’s decision to give this information away totally for free?

[ source ]

The post Nokia Releases Nokia Lumia 820 3D Printing Kit, Now You Can Make Your Own Shells appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

The Nokia Lumia 820 and 920 were released to the U.S. market just a few months ago now, but as The Wall Street Journal reports, their starting prices are already dropping quite significantly.

The flagship Nokia Lumia 920 was released through AT&T for only $99 when it first hit the market.  While that is still what AT&T is selling them for, they can be found on Amazon for as little as $39.  The Lumia 822 was originally released through Verizon also for $99.  Now Verizon offers the phone for free with a 2 year contract. As for T-Mobile, they are offering the Lumia 810 for free with a 2 year contract.

Dough Dawson, a Nokia spokesman said, “Pricing is always a carrier decision, but holiday season promotions are fairly standard at this time of year”. With 3 major carriers dropping the prices down, does that mean doom and gloom for Windows Phone 8 handsets? Not at all.

The fact is that Windows Phone 8 is still a very new ecosystem, and everyone involved knows this: that means carriers, Microsoft and Nokia. Cheap pricing to begin with was a good start, continued steep discounts during the holiday season are an even better move.

At this point Microsoft and Nokia need to get these handsets into as many hands as they possibly can. It’s hard to say if these low prices will even stick going into January, with the holidays behind us.

Is it possible that lack of sales could be the issue as well? With the Nokia Lumia 920 still selling out in many locations and continuing to have shortages globally– it doesn’t seem that likely of an issue.

Looking at Q2 sales, you see that the Lumia line sold 4 million units. This is rather paltry when compared to Apple’s 35.1 million sales for the iPhone, but let’s not forget a few things here.

First, Q2 was a transitional point that still saw many Windows Phone 7 Lumia devices on the market and had yet to see the more aggressive marketing and pricing sales from the Windows Phone 8 line.

Second, the iPhone line is very established and highly popular at the moment. For a new ecosystem, 4 million out of nowhere is actually pretty impressive, especially with the Lumia line reportedly having low stock available to begin with. At this point it is best to reserve judgement on how well the Nokia Lumia Windows Phone 8 line is doing. We should know more going forward into 2013, though.

What are your thoughts on the Nokia Lumia WP8 line?  Do you have one, and if so, do you like it?  How do you feel it compares to other phones in its class?

[ source ]

The post Nokia Lumia Prices Continue to Fall appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

With the recent launch of Windows Phone 8, Nokia has seen a great deal of initial success with the Nokia Lumia 920 and Lumia 820. In order to keep the ball rolling forward, the company has also now announced a third member to its Windows Phone 8 family, the Lumia 620.

As you might have guessed, the Nokia Lumia 620 is a budget phone with a suggested price of around $250 without contract. Don’t let the low price or word “budget phone” fool you, though.

Nokia’s 620 is still quite a powerful little device with a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Plus dual-core processor, 8GB storage, 7GB free SkyDrive cloud storage, NFC, 5MP back cam, VGA front cam and 512MB of RAM.

The biggest weakness spec-wise is the screen, which has just a 800×480 resolution and is just 3.8-inches. Still, some people like smaller screens believe it or not, and the resolution might not matter that much to everyone.

Another unique feature for the Nokia Lumia 620 is that it will come in wide range of color “shells” that can be fully interchanged, meaning you can constantly make your phone look very different. Colors include lime green, orange, magenta, yellow, cyan, white and black– though not all markets will get the full range of colors.

Now for the bad news for those of us in the United States. The Nokia 620 will first in the Asia-Pacific region, then the Middle East and Africa from January 2013. Shortly after, Canada and Europe will see the phone as well, but there is currently no official mention of the device coming to the United States.

Does that mean that the United States won’t see it? Hard to say for sure. It is coming to Canada, so it is certainly possible that a US launch will eventually be announced as well. What do you think of the Nokia Lumia 620, would you consider purchasing it if it rolls around to a market near you?

[ source ]

The post It’s no 920, but Nokia Announces Budget-Friendly Lumia 620 appeared first on Mobile Magazine.