Verizon grabs Lumia 822 exclusivity

Nokia has partnered with Verizon to become the exclusive carrier of its most recently announced smartphone, the Lumia 822.

The new Lumia phone, of course, will be powered by Microsoft’s Windows Phone 8 mobile platform. It has a 4.3-inch display with a Snapdragon S4 processor.

Nokia promises that the battery will have an impressive 11.7 hours of talk time, and music playback can last a full 62 hours.

It has support for Verizon’s high-speed 4G LTE mobile network.

Nokia has become almost synonymous with Microsoft’s mobile platform these days, and it of course is the first to show off a Windows Phone 8 device.

Of course, being the top Windows Phone manufacturer is kind of like being the best player in Little League – you’ll still have a tough time competing in the MLB. In other words, Android and iOS are still dominating the market, and Nokia has a long way to go if it wants to legitimately compete in that field.

So far, Nokia has made quite an impression, and there is the possibility that it could almost single-handedly help bring Windows Phone within striking distance of the two larger smartphone OS players. It will need to continue innovating if it wants that to happen.

Many of the Lumia phones have appeared on carriers with lower monthly fees such as T-Mobile and AT&T. Verizon’s more expensive network doesn’t mesh as well with the low-cost Lumia strategy but it does have the highest number of subscribers so this is definitely a strategic deal.