Nokia halves Lumia 900 price as Windows Phone 8 looms

Flagship handset cost cut in lead up to quarterly financial statement

Nokia has halved the cost of its flagship Lumia 900 smartphone, following the revelation that it will not be compatible with the forthcoming Windows Phone 8 platform, arriving later this year.

The Lumia 900 is now available in the US for a meagre $50 on US network AT&T, half its original $100 cost.

Microsoft unveiled some of the key features that will be found in the forthcoming Windows Phone 8 last month.

But Nokia was notably reticent about its plans for the platform, as it emerged that its current range of smartphones will not be able to be upgraded to the Windows Phone 8 platform.

Nokia's device will instead receive a more modest Windows Phone 7.8 upgrade. The 7.8 platform is the a slightly tweaked version of Windows Phone 7 designed to add a select number of Windows Phone 8 features, like the ability to change tiles sizes, to the OS.

At the time of publishing Nokia had not responded to V3's request for clarification on whether the handset would receive a similar price cut in the UK.

The news comes during a dark period for Nokia. In June, Nokia revealed plans to cut 10,000 jobs, after analysts predicted the company's handset business would post a larger-than-expected quarterly loss later this month.

The Lumia 900 features a 4.3in touch-screen, 1.4GHz processor, Windows Phone 7.5, an 8MP rear-facing camera, a 1.3MP front-facing camera and 16GB of internal storage.

For a full look at the device check out V3's full review.