Mobile Miscellany: week of January 7th, 2013
If you didn't get enough mobile news during the week, not to worry, because we've opened the firehose for the truly hardcore. This week, both Nokia and Microsoft discussed strategy for the coming year and Verizon's CEO shared his thoughts on the end of subsidies. These stories and more await after the break. So buy the ticket and take the ride as we explore the "best of the rest" for this week of January 7th, 2013.
Actually, the ZTE Grand S will be sold in US
ZTE made quite a splash at CES with the unveiling of its ultra-thin 5-inch, 1080p smartphone, the Grand S. At the time of its announcement, the quad-core beast was said to be sold only in China. Now, the company has revealed that the Grand S will be sold in the US, after all. ZTE didn't mention any specific carrier partners, but one thing is for certain: we can look forward to ZTE making great strides to build its brand awareness in the US over the coming year. [CNET]
Nokia's 2013 strategy: imaging and location
Nokia's Chris Weber sat down with FierceWireless to discuss the company's plans for 2013, but from all appearances, it seems that Nokia will maintain course with a strategy that revolves around imaging quality and location services. In addition to these two differentiators, Weber also revealed that Nokia will seek to broaden its portfolio with AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile. Here, Nokia hopes to establish high-end, mid-range and low-end Lumia smartphones across each of the three carriers. [FierceWireless]
Verizon CEO suggests end of the subsidy would be 'a great thing'
In an interview at CES, Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam expressed a surprising amount of interest in T-Mobile's move to eliminate phone subsidies. He remarked that the shakeup was "a great thing" and jokingly suggested that Verizon would support a regulatory ban of subsidies. Elaborating on a world without phone subsidies, McAdam commented that Verizon Wireless "could move to that very quickly" if demand were there, but he also aired his skepticism of consumers' readiness for such a shift. [WSJ]
Microsoft looking to spread Windows Phone to regional carriers in 2013
Microsoft's senior product manager for Windows Phone, Greg Sullivan, revealed that the company is aiming to bring Windows Phone to smaller carriers in 2013. Jokes about Sprint aside, the Redmond firm will target carriers such as Cricket and MetroPCS as it seeks to broaden the availability of Windows Phone. While not specifically mentioned, it's also likely that we'll see a Windows Phone 8 device emerge for US Cellular, which has previously announced its support for the mobile platform. [FierceWireless]
Other random tidbits
This week marked the arrival of the Lumia 920 and Lumia 820 within India. Meanwhile, the Lumia 620 is scheduled to hit the market early next month. [IIFL]
UK-based carrier O2 revealed that it'll soon begin selling the Huawei Ascend W1. [WPCentral]
Verizon announced an agreement to sell its 700MHz A block licenses that cover Oklahoma City and 31 other counties within Oklahoma to US Cellular. The agreement must now be approved by the FCC. [PhoneScoop]
