LONDON—Signs are pointing to Nokia's new Windows Phones arriving on Verizon Wireless, although neither Nokia nor Verizon will confirm this.
Coming into Nokia World this morning, I ended up walking behind a very perky mid-level Nokia marketing staffer who was obviously trying to impress her Finnish boss. They were talking pretty loudly, so it was hard to ignore if you were walking by.
She was talking about how well the company's negotiations with Verizon were going. Very clearly. I didn't hear her say anything was signed, but all signals were cheery.
So that's Article One in the evidence pile. Article Two would be Nokia's Stephen Elop specifically calling out LTE and CDMA, together, as radio technologies Nokia is working on supporting soon. Who has LTE and CDMA together? MetroPCS, of course. No, I'm joking. Verizon Wireless is the biggest CDMA/LTE carrier in the world.
As if to underscore the point, Elop mentioned Nokia working on additional "radio technologies" several times in a journalists' round table later that day. But neither Nokia U.S. president Chris Weber nor his PR people would budge on specifying U.S. carriers for the phones Elop said are coming to the U.S. early next year.
Finally, I asked Verizon Wireless what's up. They didn't say "no." They didn't say "no comment." Here's what they said: "Verizon Wireless executives regularly review products from the major handset manufacturers so we know what is available and can offer our customers the best technology on the market today. We make our final decisions based on customer and technology needs, device portfolio mix and company business objectives."
Raising expectations, anyone? Let's hope those negotiations the perky marketing person was talking about go well.
Nokia this morning announced its first two Windows Phones, the Lumia 800 and Lumia 710, which feature exclusive navigation, music, and sports applications. For more, see PCMag's hands on with the devices.