Nokia has officially confirmed that the 4000 jobs it planned to cut at the end of last year would affect its manufacturing facilities in Reynosa Mexico, Komarom Hungary and Salo Finland as part of its company wide restructuring initiative designed to save 1 billion Euro by 2015, with those plants moving to a supplemental role as end points for carrier customization of manufactured devices with the actual manufacturing of devices moving to plants in Malaysia, China and Brazil as Nokia outsources more manufacturing to Foxconn following the lead of its long-time component suppliers.

Nokia was at one point known for featuring the majority of its mid-range and high-end device manufacturing in Finland and was one of the last mobile phone manufacturers to begin outsourcing device manufacturing to third party companies. The high-end Symbian based N and E series were routinely lauded for their build quality as they were made outside of their corporate headquarters in Finland while their mid-range and low-end lineups were made within Europe, typically in Germany and Eastern Europe.

It should be noted that the plants affected by the latest job cuts were dedicated to the manufacturing and assembly of Symbian and MeeGo Harmattan devices before the cuts were made, with the Reynosa plant manufacturing the N9 directly for the Mexican market, while the Hungarian plant handled Pan-European production and the plant in Salo handled initial manufacturing before handing off large-scale production to Asian plants. The aforementioned plants will not be shuttered completely, but as previously mentioned, will now handle carrier customization and final packaging/shipment for smartphones.

With Nokia moving exclusively to Windows Phone, the cuts were seen as necessary as the 4,000 workers handled Symbian related device work and Nokia has been transitioning away from the platform by spinning it off to Accenture, while sustaining billion dollar losses due to the loss in smartphone marketshare in the fourth quarter down from a $980 million profit in the same quarter in 2010. With the latest round of cuts, Nokia is further demonstrating that it is pinning all of its hopes on the success of Windows Phone, even going as far as admitting that they do not have an alternative plan in place should Windows Phone continue its tepid adoption rate compared to Android and iOS.

It remains to be seen whether Nokia’s current strategy will pay off, as Microsoft is set to offer the unlocked version of the Lumia 800 beginning on Valentine’s Day in a $900 bundle including a custom Bluetooth speaker and custom accessories while Nokia hints at an unlocked international version of the currently AT&T exclusive Lumia 900, with no official confirmation on availability at this time, despite having plans for a special event during Mobile World Congress in Spain being held next week.

Not long after all of the pomp and fanfare surrounding the long awaited announcement of the Nokia Lumia 900 earlier this week, the mailing list for Windows Phone developers has confirmed that AT&T’s flagship Nokia Windows Phone smartphone will be launching in March, sooner than originally expected taking into account AT&T’s own vague Spring timeline. Windows commentator Paul Thurrott previously confirmed that the phone would launch on March 18th when it was known as the Nokia ACE.

As previously confirmed, the Lumia 900 is exclusive to AT&T and features either improvements or additions to the Lumia 800 in a larger 4.3 inch ClearBlack AMOLED display, LTE radio, Windows Phone Tango for LTE support, front facing camera, 1.4 GHz processor,  8.0 megapixel camera with 1080p video capture and dual LED flash, 16GB internal memory and Bluetooth.

The phone was designed with both AT&T and the US market in mind as it features a front facing camera and LTE support while the 800 features neither of those and Nokia expects it to drive Windows Phone sales in the US to drive its own comeback in the US market, where the brand has suffered significant marketshare loss after the launch of the iPhone in 2007. For historical context, the last Nokia phone to have significant sales and attention in the US market was the N95 sold in the months before the June 2007 launch of the Apple iPhone.

Not long after the launch, Nokia tried to court US carriers again with branded versions of its international models such as the E71 and E73 in an ultimately futile effort to compete with Apple before suffering another blow in the form of Android, which pushed Nokia’s smartphones aside in the wider US market, save for dedicated fans of Symbian.

Now with the attention given to Nokia and Windows Phone after this week, both Nokia and Microsoft are expecting the new partnership to payoff in a big way. Judging by the positive reception during CES, the Lumia 900 may turn the fortunes around of both Nokia and Windows Phone, provided the actual phone lives up to the initial critical praise.

Welcome back to our continuing coverage of CES 2012 and we keep going with Nokia’s keynote where the manufacturer is expected to unveil the Lumia 900 for AT&T along with the rest of its plans for 2012.

2:58 – Seated and ready to go.
3:02 - Stephen Elop takes the stage.
3:04 –  Recapping Nokia’s strategy for revival. Touting the “Next Billion” strategy for emerging markets, highlighting Nokia Asha
3:05 –  Moving to smartphones, citing the US platform wars as a key reason for switching to Windows Phone. Recapping Lumia 710 and 800
3:06 – Elop touting Lumia series launches, running through litany of countries Lumia has launched in.
3:07 – Elop  touts plan as to ‘establish a series of beachheads’ with Lumia series, announces Lumia 900 with video montage
3:08 – Lumia 900 confirmed to feature LTE for AT&T launch.
3:11 – Initial launch colors confirmed to be Black and Cyan with 1830 mAh battery
3:12 – Nokia SVP Kevin Shields takes the stage to run down previous announcements
3:13 –  Reiterates importance of dual cameras for US market on Lumia 900. Rear camera features f 2.2 aperture lens with 28mm focal length.
3:15 – Noting that Nokia is using staged photos to tout the focal length of the camera in the Lumia 900
3:16 – Windows Phone Tango confirmed as requirement for LTE support, pre-installed on Lumia 900 and required for LTE Windows Phones.
3:17 –  Now touting Windows Phone’s simplicity. Tango appears to have minor UI changes, but nothing significant to make note of.
3:18 - Nokia also touted Nokia Drive as a differentiator… Despite commiting previously to launch Nokia Drive for other Windows Phone 7 devices.
3:21 –  Elop retakes stage. Touts app ecosystem as something Nokia will play steering role in Windows Phone, wants apps to launch there first. Steve Ballmer also takes stage.
3:24 –  Ballmer said a lot… But really didn’t say anything new, cites ‘more work to go’ with Windows Phone adoption Ralph de la Vega takes the stage.
3:26 –  Much like Ballmer, de la Vega said a lot… But didn’t say much at all.
3:27 – Announcements done, onto Q&A.
3:28 –  No comment on Lumia for Sprint or Verizon
3:29 –  Elop cites retail partners, pressuring store reps to push Nokia will be key to regaining market share (driving sales with SPLIFFs, etc.)
3:31 –  No European announcement for Lumia 900 today
3:32 –  And similarly, no sales figures for Windows Phones sold to date
3:34 –  Lumia 900 won’t bump storage over 800… Nokia points the finger back to Microsoft for cloud storage, but did note configurations for 900 will vary from one market to the next when it is launched elsewhere
3:40 – Elop confirms Navteq data for Nokia Drive, cites ownership as key advantage in location-based services competition.
3:41 – On battery life when using LTE, Elop confirms extensive work with Nokia and Qualcomm to ensure better than average  battery life, states NFC is a B2B issue and on the question of RIM, Elop cites Microsoft’s tools as effective counterpoint to RIM in enterprise. That’s a wrap. Next up, Microsoft’s last keynote.

Wirefly today took the apparently-accidental step of offering up pre-orders for the Lumia 710, Nokia’s first American Windows Phone. The phone will launch on T-Mobile.

CES is shaping up to be Nokia’s re-debut with their line of Windows Phones all set to be announced at CES. As many as three Lumia variants may be seen at the show, the Lumia 710 for T-Mobile is all but confirmed. However, there will likely be at least one LTE variant announced, the Lumia 800 with LTE for AT&T, and possibly the announcement of Lumia 800 CDMA units for Verizon Wireless and other CDMA carriers, such as Sprint.

The situation surrounding the Lumia 800 for AT&T is much clearer than the 800′s CDMA counterparts. The Lumia 710 has not been rumored to be making the jump to CDMA. Verizon Wireless may be willing to accept a CDMA only variant as a temporary measure to launch the device. The Lumia 800 with LTE does not have CDMA, putting Nokia in a bind; it apparently has decided to forgo an LTE-with-CDMA version in lieu of launching what it has already developed, and later launching a device with both on Verizon.

It’s not clear though why Verizon would accept such a device. It would be taking a non-4G version of the same 4G phone that AT&T will carry. Sales would also be impacted; tech-savvy would avoid the phone like the plague. Even in non-4G markets, Verizon’s throttling policies dictate that to avoid throttling, you have to own an LTE-enabled phone. This move was made to ensure that iPhone, which lacks LTE, would be throttled. Here however, it may only serve to quash sales.

The Lumia 710 may be targeting the iPhone 4 in terms of customer base, but it may wind up competing against the iPhone 3GS. Wirefly is already selling the phone for free with a new two-year contract.

PhoneNews.com will be kicking off CES 2011 coverage, live from Las Vegas, later this week.

Noted Windows pundit Paul Thurrott has confirmed a few key details related to US Windows Phone launches planned for the coming year which center on AT&T and Verizon Wireless.

Three LTE-based Windows Phone handsets–the Nokia ACE, HTC Radiant, and Samsung Mendel–will ship on AT&T Wireless before the middle of 2012. The ACE is due March 18, 2012. What’s unclear is whether these LTE based devices will be accompanied by a software update of some kind. You may recall that the rumored “Tango” release, supposedly due in early 2012, is about low-end phones. So it’s unclear how that jives with LTE, which is obviously a high-end feature. This explains my confusion over the supposed Windows Phone roadmap leak yesterday.

Also, the Nokia Lumia 710 will ship on Verizon Wireless in April 2012. This is not an LTE device, and it’s not clear when/if we’ll see an LTE Windows Phone on Verizon. The Lumia 710 is codenamed “Sword” and will be available in April 2012. (The T-Mobile version of the Lumia 710 will be available for purchase on January 11, 2012, giving the company three months of exclusivity before the device hits Verizon.

While the above seems to correlate with leaked roadmaps, the specific nature of the information points to heavy ongoing internal testing of Nokia Windows Phone devices on US carriers before their respective launches, with T-Mobile USA being the first to launch next month.

With Verizon launching a non-LTE version of the Lumia 710 despite public statements expressing a desire for such a device, the carrier may be extending an olive branch to the Finnish manufacturer after its previous relationship with the manufacturer dissolved into nothing more than Korean ODM rebrands that had very little to do with Nokia in terms of hardware.

The same could be said of AT&T with the Ace and the other planned LTE equipped phones after it passed on Nokia’s last carrier focused smartphone in the Nokia X7, which was meant to be an exclusive phone for AT&T running Symbian^3 and makes sense as AT&T was chosen by Microsoft to promote Windows Phone.

T-Mobile has announced that it will be the exclusive carrier for the Nokia Lumia 710 in the US, making it the first carrier to launch and carry a Nokia Windows Phone Mango smartphone. Pricing for the phone is set at $99.99 before an additional $50 mail-in rebate via prepaid debit card, bringing the total to $49.99 and will launch on January 11th.

The phone is identical to the unlocked version with a 3.7 inch WVGA display, a 1.4 GHz processor with a dedicated graphics processor, 5.0 megapixel camera with 720p video capture and 8GB of internal storage with no expansion slot.

Not long after the official introduction of the Lumia series of Windows Phone smartphones earlier this month, Nokia has taken to both Twitter and YouTube to tease an even higher-end model of the series yet to be officially announced and is currently being teased at developers and fans as the Nokia “Asha”.

Specific details on the Asha/Lumia 900 are few and far between but the first clue revealed by Nokia on Twitter is that it will feature a 1GHz processor, while other unconfirmed details suggest that the phone will feature a 4.3 inch display. Continue reading for the developer video.

Not long after the long awaited announcement and unveiling of Nokia’s first Windows Phone smartphones in the Lumia 710 and 800 yesterday during Nokia World, Nokia USA has confirmed that it will not release the initial series in the US next year, instead releasing a different lineup specifically tailored for the market such as phones with dual mode support for LTE and 3G. CEO Stephen Elop has promised more specific details in a separate announcement scheduled for next year.

The confirmation comes as Nokia USA has opened a page on the Lumia 710 on its website complete with sign-up page for more information, which initially led to the perception that Nokia would release the line as announced in Europe in the US at some point in the future.

As Nokia USA is still in limbo in terms of short-term smartphone releases, the decision to skip the initial release of the Lumia series launching next month in Europe is another stumble for the manufacturer as it did not officially release the MeeGo powered N9 in the US and is winding down US support for Symbian following the recent Symbian Anna update rollout for the US. Without a new holiday lineup to promote in the US, the company faces yet more losses in marketshare in the US as  the next wave of Android releases and the  iPhone continue to push the manufacturer aside. The manufacturer was widely expected to have Windows Phone smartphones ready for the US in time for the holiday season.

This morning in  London, Nokia CEO Stephen Elop announced the forthcoming launch of its long awaited Windows Phone smartphone lineup during the keynote for the Nokia World conference under the Lumia series branding. The Lumia series will represent Nokia’s new flagship series for smartphones and will consist of two smartphones in the Lumia 710 and the Lumia 800.

The Nokia Lumia 710 features a 3.7 inch WVGA display, a 1.4 GHz processor with a dedicated graphics processor, 5.0 megapixel camera with 720p video capture and 8GB of internal storage with no expansion slot.

The Nokia Lumia 800 features the same base hardware with a curved ClearBack AMOLED display, 16GB of internal storage and an 8.0 megapixel camera with autofocus, flash and Carl Zeiss optics. Pricing for the Lumia 710 is set at 270 Euros while the Lumia 800 is set at 420 Euros with a November 16th launch. The US launch of the Lumia series is set for the first half of 2012 with pricing yet to be confirmed.

Along with the debut of the Lumia series, Nokia has also announced the availability of Nokia Maps for Windows Phone with offline and downloadable maps support as currently found through the Symbian and HTML5 versions respectively, along with a new version of the Nokia Music management application. In related news, Nokia has also announced an unexpected profit for the 3rd quarter mainly due to the higher than expected sales of its low end handsets in developing markets.

After months of anticipation, Nokia has officially begun its roll out of the Symbian Anna update for the US NAM versions of the N8, C7, C6-01 and E7.

The update makes major and minor changes to the operating system such as a portrait virtual QWERTY keyboard and changes to the photo gallery as well as instant messaging with Microsoft Communicator Mobile, meeting requests and hardware-accelerated device encryption in the updated Email application. Symbian Anna also includes updated Nokia Maps, web browser, Nokia Store, Nokia Suite, and Nokia’s Social applications while activating the NFC hardware in the Nokia C7, which allows it to be used with mobile wallet applications. The update will be made available over the air and over the recently updated Nokia Suite.