In less than one quarter with just two smartphones on the market, Nokia managed to take the top spot among Windows Phone vendors in the fourth quarter of 2011. Microsoft’s mobile platform still accounts for just a small fraction of Nokia’s smartphone sales, but the Finnish vendor is in the early stages of a transition that will eventually see Symbian devices eliminated from its portfolio. The Lumia 710 and Lumia 800 started things off, and Nokia revealed the Lumia 900 during the Consumer Electronics Show, a flagship device that BGR exclusively reported will launch on AT&T next month at a very aggressive $99.99 price point. Nokia is rumored to have at least two new devices that will be unveiled during today’s press conference — the entry-level Lumia 610 and a high-end camera phone expected to be the international version of the Lumia 900 — and we’re on hand to bring you all the news as it breaks. Hit the jump for our live coverage of Nokia’s press conference, which is scheduled to begin at 2:30 a.m. EST / 11:30 p.m. PST (8:30 a.m. local time in Barcelona).
3:14AM:Annnnnd we’re out. Thanks, Nokia!
3:13AM:The 808 will be available out of contract for 450 Euro, and will ship in May
3:12AM:Now we’ve got Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon demoing out of the phone. Sound is great, video is great. Great. This all actually looks pretty cool.
3:12AM:The Pureview 808 also provides stereo audio recording, which is a bit of a rarity amongst smartphones. Each handset also comes with Monster-spec headsets and surround sound capability.
3:10AM:Pureview will be launched across the Nokia line in the future
3:10AM:All images can be compressed down to compact size for sharing services.
3:09AM:7 pixels are condensed down to 1, allowing amazing zoom capabilities. We’ve got some demo images now, and of course, they look incredible. We’ll see how real-life stuff works out, but hey…that’s a lot of pixels!
3:08AM:a 41 megapixel sense. Whoa
3:08AM:Now we’re talking about further support for Symbian. We’ve got something coming….the Nokia 808 PureView. “A Revolution in Smartphone IMaging”
3:06AM:Lumia 900 is priced at 480 Euro in Q2, the Lumia 610 comes in at 189 Euro and will ship in Q2. That’s a pretty big price differentiation!
3:05AM:Frequently used routes can be pinned to the home screen and are updated in real-time. That’s actually pretty cool.
3:05AM:XBox Live support is included, of course, and it comes pre-loaded with Nokia Maps, Nokia Drive, and Nokia Music. This also includes new Nokia Transport, door-to-door underground, tram, and train directions in over 500 cities in 46 countries. Nice!
3:04AM:The most affordable Lumia yet. The perfect intro of the LUmia line to a younger line. Beveled aluminum design, with built-in social networking support. Etc etc. Standard Windows Mobile feature support. None of this is too impressive, but it is a good looking phone.
3:02AM:Annnnd here we go. The Nokia Lumia 610!
3:01AM:System requirements have officially been lowered, to support 256mb of memory and lower spec chipsets. This should help to allow more comprehensive penetration for Windows Phone.
3:00AM:Windows Phone will launch in China with Lumia, and other Windows Phone models. This definitely seems far more impressive for Microsoft than it does for Nokia, though it’s still quite a feat on both sides.
2:59AM:Now we’ve got a demo of Skype for Windows Phone, which marks the launch of the beta providing video calling from Windows Phone.
2:58AM:Now we’ve got Terry Meyerson, head of the Windows Phone Division at Microsoft, to talk about video calling.
2:57AM:All of this Nokia Reading content is localized. It includes a newstream feature, that pulls personalized feeds and topics into a personalized digital magazine. A la flipboard. This all updates live onto the WM livetile.
2:56AM:Same display, same processor, same battery, same media options, same Nokia signature experience, including Nokia Drive. Great. Let’s relaunch more devices, shall we? Granted, we’ve got a new release of Nokia Drive, including full offline support. We also have the launch of Nokia Reading, that includes access to news, books, audio books, and more. All available offline
2:54AM:The Lumia 900 will now be available in April in Canada. The Lumia 900 will also be expanding into further worldwide markets. The lack of LTE worldwide was an initial boc,, but we now have a Lumia 900 without LTE. DCHSPA version will allow worldwide adoption. Same handset, new radios.
2:53AM:Good. Now we’ve got some smartphone stats, noting the intro of the Lumia 900 on AT&T in the States.
2:52AM:Alright. Mary out, Steven back in. Let’s see where we’re headed now. New Lumia, anyone?
2:51AM:We’ve got a demo up now of the Exchange support. nothing groundbreaking but everything seems to work quite well, and to have Exchange support on a feature phone is a pretty impressive feat. Still, can we really imagine execs using something like this, especially with growing enterprise access to iPhone? The Asha 302 will be priced around 95 Euro.
2:49AM:The Asha 302 includes Microsoft Exchange support
2:49AM:The 302 includes a cloud-accelerated browser and support for web-apps, which delivers a “smartphone type” experience on the phone. Decent way around the lack of app support, but Apple seems to have proven the lack of interest in web apps…
2:47AM:The Asha 302 is targeted at the “Hyper Social” set, those that visit Facebook over 4 times per hour. It includes out of the box push support for Facebook and Twitter.
2:47AM:The phones will be priced close to 60 Euros and will be available in the ext 6 weeks
2:46AM:Nokia Life is bundled with 40 free games, courtesy of EA. This amounts to 75 Euros worth of free games.
2:45AM:Interesting, sure, but definitely not the most cutting edge stuff here. Let’s hope they’ve got some more fireworks on hand…
2:45AM:It also includes a language learning program called “Learn English” to provide gratis English lessons in 16 local languages across the globe. Images and other media can be easily shared via Nokia Life as well, which includes seamless integration with the Nokia contact list
2:44AM:Nokia life delivers content over SMS, including info about agriculture and local news, life skills, and info for young people to develop knowledge about healthcare and entertainment. Sigh….
2:43AM:The 202 is a multi-sim phone, the 203 is a single sim phone. They are both Nokia Life phones, which provides access to the Nokia LIfe suite of “mobile life improvement” tools, targeted at folks with a smart-ish phone but no data plan. Today will mark te launch of Nokia Life.
2:42AM:The 202 and 203 are both touchscreen phones
2:41AM:Alright, now we’ve got Mary McDowell, the exec VP of mobile devices. Looks like we’re gonna be heavy on feature phones. The Nokia 202, 203, and 302. These are all ASHA devices
2:40AM:Windows Phone apps are up 3x from last year. Emerging markets are a key factor in this growth.
2:40AM:Call us skeptical, but these seem like pretty dubious stats. Let’s see if they have any more impressive stuff to pull out before the actual unveiling
2:39AM:The Lumia 800 is the #1 smartphone in Russia. Great?
2:39AM:They’ve penetrated over 100 worldwide markets, with Lumia presence in over 31 markets from 50 operators. Noting the re-entry in the North American market with T-Mobile.
2:38AM:Noting that at last year’s MWC, Nokia outlined a new strategy, no new devices, but a clear vision for the future. They seem to have met the key goals they set forth, including a focus on design and LBS
2:37AM:We’ve got Nokia wrapping up the last year, giving a bevy of stats about internet usage and media consumption of the last year. 6.9 trillion text messages sent over the last 12 months. Lol
2:35AM:Cue random video montage of Nokia-related imagery in 5,4,3,2…
2:35AM:Annnnd we’ve got the lights dimming. We’re off!
2:34AM:Alright folks, this music is beginning to wear on our ears just a bit. Let’s get moving!!
2:28AM:Let’s just hope the hands-on demos are as organized as the actual press conference. Sony, we’re looking at you….
2:23AM:Nokia has done a great job of providing a comfortabel space for bloggers and press. Croisant? Don’t mind if we do.
2:21AM:Annnnd we’re inside. This has been a seamless process thus far. We’ve even got power outlets and a chair. Thanks, Nokia!
