Report: Nokia Ace to receive "Hero" status from AT&T, part of $100M campaign

BetaNews is reporting tonight from undisclosed sources that the upcoming Nokia "Ace" aka Lumia 900 will be part of a massive advertising campaign, with a reported $100 million dollars being spent promoting the highly secretive device. It's not clear if that money will be spent equally by Microsoft, AT&T or Nokia or divided amongst the three in another fashion.

Perhaps more importantly the phone is reported to receive "hero status" from AT&T which according to BetaNews means that the carrier will "...will promote the device in its advertising, through its retail channels and direct store associates to push the device within its stores." Such a position would be the first for any Windows Phone in the US, perhaps finally giving the the beleaguered OS a shot in the limelight. If all goes well with this Nokia Ace/900 push on AT&T another source indicated that Microsoft is hoping to get carriers to "hero" another device for the 2012 holiday season.

While sources for this story remain undisclosed the information in general terms is exactly what Microsoft and more recently Nokia have essentially promised when launching here in the United States. Most recently this was confirmed when Nokia CEO Elop commented that they were "game" for stepping up their performance, especially in relation to carriers in the US. And considering how much Nokia has invested in Europe e.g. the Deadmau5 event, we imagine they have big plans here for the States.

More will be revealed of course next Monday at 6PM EST when Nokia holds their media event at CES in Las Vegas. Nokia is expected to reveal the "Ace" or Lumia 900, a device with a 4.3" "clear black" screen, 16GB of storage, 4G LTE for AT&T and a front-facing camera. We'll be their live, covering the event.

Source: BetaNews; Thanks, Domnic T. for the tip!

Daniel Rubino is the Editor-in-chief of Windows Central. He is also the head reviewer, podcast co-host, and analyst. He has been covering Microsoft since 2007 when this site was called WMExperts (and later Windows Phone Central). His interests include Windows, laptops, next-gen computing, and wearable tech. He has reviewed laptops for over 10 years and is particularly fond of 2-in-1 convertibles, Arm64 processors, new form factors, and thin-and-light PCs. Before all this tech stuff, he worked on a Ph.D. in linguistics, performed polysomnographs in NYC, and was a motion-picture operator for 17 years.