Verizon and T-Mobile out. Nokia Lumia 920, exclusive to AT&T?

Will only AT&T have the 920 in the US?

In today’s press release from AT&T making the Nokia Lumia 820 and 920 official, the word “exclusive” unfortunately was tossed in to the mix raising some red flags.

When addressing the Lumia 920 specifically it was used in this context:

“Exclusive to our customers and featuring unique innovations…the Lumia 920 will be one of the hottest phones for the holidays,”

To us that sounds like AT&T has managed to make a deal with Nokia to be the only carrier offering the flagship phone. While the Lumia 820 has been expected to go to T-Mobile and even Verizon, the 920 was always a toss up. Many people have been hoping big Red would finally get a top of the line Nokia Windows Phone. In fact, an earlier report from PhoneArena strongly suggested that to be the case.

No Lumia 920 for Verizon?

Now, all of that is being called into question.

We don’t want to dwell too much on it because we simply don’t know the details—for all we know, AT&T has a 30,60 or 90 day exclusive on the device as opposed to an open-ended deal with Nokia. That means Verizon could still be set to get the phone just at a later date.

Regardless, we’re obviously not fans of carrier-exclusives but have come to recognize that they are just part of the business model these days. AT&T since day one of Windows Phone 7 has had all of the top devices, often exclusively. There’s little reason to think that two years later any of that has changed.

Though the 820 is exclusive too, rumors suggest Verizon is getting the 822

That's a shame though. We think most of our readers would agree that the best shot for Windows Phone (and Nokia) would be to get the Lumia 920 in as many hands as possible. By limiting it to just AT&T, even initially, it puts the brakes on that momentum. It may be good for AT&T but not good for Nokia.

If this exclusive holds true, we can see many folks on Verizon simply buying the HTC 8X instead. That's not a bad runner up.

We’ll reach out for clarification on the exclusiveness but carriers and OEMs are usually not fans of giving details on these matters.