Shares of the world’s largest mobile phone maker Nokia are up more than 5% today. After hitting a low of $4.50 in mid-December, Nokia (NYSE: NOK) shares have been trending higher this year as excitement builds around its new Windows Phone-powered devices. So far, the Lumia 710, Nokia’s most basic Windows smartphone, is the only model available in the United States, and now that phone is available for free at Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) with a two year contract. T-Mobile USA and Best Buy both continue to sell the Lumia 710 for $50 with a two-year contract.
With almost a quarter of the worldwide market for mobile phones, Nokia remains the world leader, but the Finnish company has struggled to gain a foothold in the smartphone market. Last week Samsung vowed to overtake Nokia this year as the world’s top mobile phone seller. Nokia is banking on Microsoft’s Windows Phone operating system (and Microsoft’s mighty marketing muscle), and together the two companies have introduced three Lumia phones, the 710, the 800 and the new Lumia 900. But Windows Phone has a long way to go – in the third quarter fewer than 2% of the smartphones sold worldwide ran Windows mobile operating system, according to Gartner.
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