If you are set to buy a Windows 8-powered Nokia Lumia 920 soon after its launch, you may have to switch to AT&T. A number of training videos for sales representatives have leaked and indicate that the Lumia 920 will be exclusive to the mobile carrier for the first six months after the phone’s launch.
Nokia is yet to announce availability and pricing for the Lumia 920, as well as unveil some more of its unknown specs. If these genuinely looking training videos are any indication, then the wait shouldn’t be too long, as Windows 8 is set to arrive Oct. 26.
The Lumia 920 features a 4.5-inch display with 1280 by 728 pixel resolution, and runs on a 1.5GHz dual-core Snapdragon processor. The phone incorporates an 8-megapixel PureView camera on the back that features image stabilization. 4G LTE support is also on board, along with NFC and wireless charging.
The videos were purportedly leaked to the WPCentral blog by an anonymous AT&T source. One of the videos highlighting the main features of the phone says that the Lumia 920 will be exclusive to AT&T for six months, so you’d be able to get it with Verizon, T-Mobile or Sprint next year.
The other two videos demonstrate the phone’s wireless capabilities for charging and playing music, as well as demonstrate the Nokia City Lens augmented reality directory app.
To maximize sales, Apple and Samsung among others have launched their latest devices on multiple carriers at the same time, but Nokia does not have the same weight with U.S. carriers. The latest sales figures from the company released on Thursday show that Nokia sold 2.9 million Lumia smartphones in the quarter, down from four million in the second quarter.
Exclusivity to one carrier might not be Nokia Lumia 920’s biggest problem. After the phone was announced, the company was outed for faking portions of its ads promoting the video stabilization features of the camera, as well as some still promotional images. The video claimed to have used the Lumia 920 camera, but reflections actually showed that professional cameras were used instead. Nokia apologized for the misrepresentation.
HTC, which also experienced low sales in the past two quarters, will sell two Windows Phone 8 devices, but has yet to announce pricing and availability in the U.S. as well. Samsung’s Windows 8 phones will be called Ativ, and have no launch date or pricing either so far.