Nokia's Lumia 900, headed for global release?

The mobile industry will be gathering in Barcelona, Spain, this week for the big Mobile World Congress, providing a glimpse of the phones and other mobile devices that will be hitting the market over the next year.

One device expected to be unveiled is Nokia’s Lumia 610, a scaled-down Window Phone reportedly designed to give Nokia new traction against cheaper Android devices, particularly in the developing world. The device is rumored to run a new variation of Windows Phone, dubbed “Tango,” designed to support lower-end processors.

Nokia’s news conference won’t begin until early Monday morning, Barcelona time, but overnight, BGR India quoted anonymous sources on the expected specs of the device, including plans for a 3.2-inch display, and a 3 MP camera.

On the high end of the market, Reuters reports that Nokia is slated to announce the rollout of a global version of the Nokia Lumia 900 smartphone that the company previously unveiled for the U.S. market.

The U.S. version of the Nokia 900, expected on AT&T next month, comes with a 4.3-inch screen, an 8MP camera and a 1.4 GHz processor — designed to give prospective iPhone buyers a reason to consider Windows Phone, at least.

Microsoft’s Windows Phone division won’t have a press event of its own in Barcelona, but the Windows team is slated to unveil the Windows 8 Consumer Preview at Mobile World Congress later in the week — effectively kicking off Microsoft’s bid to make traditional Windows more of a force in tablets and other forms of mobile computing.

Nokia and Microsoft have a lot of ground to make up in mobile phones.

A report last week by the Strategy Analytics research firm said 2.7 million Windows Phones were shipped in the fourth quarter, including 900,000 Windows Phones from Nokia, making it the largest Windows Phone vendor. That2.7 million translates into less than 2 percent of the global smartphone market.

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