It's but a wee bit of time until the Nokia Lumia 900 officially launches on AT&T and savvy shoppers can pick themselves up a brand-new Windows Phone for the simple price of one penny.
No, that's not a typo. AT&T might have the Lumia 900 listed for a cool $99.99 as of this article's writing, but a quick trip over to Amazon reveals that you can purchase the same device for a tiny piece of copper (technically, copper-plated Zinc, but who's counting?)
Is that strange? The amount certainly isn't: Amazon (and others) routinely discount smartphones to entice new users to sign up for full-fledged service contracts. The same holds true for the Lumia 900: It might cost a penny, but that's only if one commits to a full two-year service plan with AT&T. That's a bare minimum of $39.99 monthly for AT&T's basic 450-minute plan and an additional $20 for AT&T's cheapest, 300-megabyte data plan.
Hey, at least you'll be grabbing that data pretty quickly, given that the Lumia 900 taps into AT&T's 4G-LTE network (not to be confused with its "4G" network.) But don't expect to just be able to grab the Lumia 900 and quit out after a short period of time: AT&T's early termination fee applies, and it's a hefty $325 minus $10 for every month of service you complete.
What is a little strange, however, is the fact that the Lumia 900 isn't even out yet and it's already getting discounted to virtually nothing. When's the last time that happened to any smartphone you purchased? One certainly doesn't get the latest Apple iPhones for free with a new contract, nor any top-shelf Android device.
Given that the Lumia 900 has routinely been described as Nokia's flagship device for AT&T — "our hero phone," said AT&T's Jeff Bradley in an interview with CNET — it's a little odd to see it so quickly discounted without any accompanying sale, promotion, or explanation.
That said, AT&T does win the day for no-commitment Lumia 900 smartphones. If you want your device sans contract, it'll cost you only $449.99 at AT&T's store versus $499.99 at Amazon's. In the world of online shopping, it's certainly worth checking every site…
Check out our full, hands-on coverage of the Lumia 900.
For more tech tidbits from David Murphy, follow him on Facebook or Twitter (@thedavidmurphy).
