The Lumia 900, the first high-end Windows Phone from Nokia to hit the U.S. market, made its debut on Sunday, and while it saw major gains via Amazon.com, some users reported network connection issues.
The Lumia 900 is currently listed as Amazon's "biggest gainer" in the company's cell phone sales ranks over the last 24 hours. Among the best sellers of smartphones with service plans, the Lumia 900 landed at number seven, behind several Samsung Galaxy and Motorola Droid devices.
Amazon is offering the $99.99 smartphone for $49.99 with a two-year contract via AT&T.
It appears that Lumia buyers were forced to purchase online yesterday, thanks to Easter and Passover. Many AT&T and Microsoft stores were closed for the holidays, making it a rather awkward day to launch a new flagship device.
Another setback for the Lumia 900 appears to be reports of network connectivity problems. As noted by Phone Arena, customers have taken to various online forums to complain about lackluster service.
"I have been using my Lumia for a few hours on wifi and never realized that cell data was not working until I tried to send a picture to my wife via text. Went to a corp. AT&T store and they could not figure it out either," a user named haleme wrote on the wpcentral.com forums Friday night.
"Got my new lumia 900 yesterday from at&t, everything's fine EXCEPT THE WEB," AZNDUDENYC chimed in via the Nokia boards on Sunday.
Phone Arena pointed to a workaround that has apparently fixed the issue for some users: Remove the SIM card > Perform a Master Reset (Settings > About) > Boot up without the SIM card > Turn off the Lumia 900 > Verify that the SIM card is LTE-enabled > Insert SIM and boot up.
Have you been having trouble with Lumia 900 connectivity? Let us know in the comments.
Nokia and Microsoft are hoping that the Lumia 900 can boost Windows Phone in the U.S. The platform has thus far struggled to compete against iOS and Android, despite mostly positive reviews. According to new data from ABI Research, only about 2 percent of the 36 billion apps users are expected to download this year will be for Windows Phone devices. That, however, is twice the share from last year. "Microsoft is gaining momentum, but its starting point is frustratingly low," ABI research associate Lim Shiyang said.
According to All About Windows Phone, the Windows Phone Marketplace recently passed 80,000 apps. Apple's App Store, however, has more than 500,000 apps, while Google Play has about 450,000.
For more, see PCMag's full review of the Lumia 900 and the slideshow below.