Microsoft’s Windows Phone has been off to a slow start but that’s to be expected when you start over from scratch and send Windows Mobile to the big recycling bin in the sky. Despite the slow start, Windows Phone has been gaining momentum recently and a new pre-paid offering from AT&T could be the ticket to help Microsoft increase its footprint in the mobile space.
To help increase that footprint, AT&T will now be selling a pre-paid Windows Phone, the Lumia 520, for $99; that’s $99 to get a Windows Phone 8 device without a contract.
Seeing that AT&T is one of the largest cell-phone carriers in the US, having an affordable option in the pre-paid category is a big win for Microsoft. While T-Mobile has been offering the Lumia 521 for $149, the $99 option on AT&T is a huge win as AT&T provides service for many more consumers than T-Mobile.
For Nokia and Microsoft, if they can move a considerable number of these devices, it will help increase the footprint of Microsoft’s mobile platform and should help to increase the developer adoption of the OS. One of the largest complaints about Windows Phone is that the apps on the platform typically lag behind iOS and Android. By increasing the number of users of the OS, it becomes a more lucrative option for developers to target Windows Phone with the expectation that they should be able to capitalize on their efforts
Source: AllthingsD