pre-order

This morning AT&T threw open the preorders for the Nokia Lumia 920, which is commanding a super-low $99 price tag on contract in addition to a limited offering of a free wireless charging pad.

What may be of interest to some is the fact that the off-contract, no commitment price (but yes, still locked to AT&T) is just $450. That’s quite fascinating as most had expected the no-commitment price to be north of $599. That is what Best Buy (and eBay) had as the off-contract price and considering the technology on board the Lumia 920 it made sense. Even when some of us applied a 25% off coupon on the eBy preorder our price was knocked down to $450, which at the time seemed like a steal. (Best Buy is price matching AT&T, so keep that in mind if you ordered from them).

Update: The Lumia 920 is still hidden from the Best Buy system but if you use this link, you can still find it and evidently pre-order it. Thanks, anujtwp, for the link

Just this morning we woke up gleefully to find that Best Buy was finally taking pre-orders for AT&T’s Lumia 920 and the HTC 8X. Even better was what seemed like a fair price for the Lumia 920: $150 on contract, coming in below the normal $200 mark for high-end smartphones.

But alas, something is awry and the Lumia 920 has gone missing from Best Buy’s site. Even more odd is how the HTC 8X is still listed for pre-order. Glitch? Error? Sold out? We really have no idea and hopefully tomorrow either we’ll wake to find it fixed or we’ll ask Nokia if they know what’s going on with the whole deal.

In addition, some people who have pre-ordered the Lumia 920 mentioned to us a ship date of October 23 or 24th. While we don’t have any knowledge if that is accurate, we’re leaning on this being an error from Best Buy. We’re not expecting that phone to ship until November 4th—but hey, we like surprises just like anyone else.

Thanks for everyone who sent this in!

Expansys UK is has listed the HTC 8X and 8S as available for pre-order. The HTC 8X is listed for £399.99 and the HTC 8S is listed for £239.99.  It is our understanding that shipping dates for the 8X will be November 2, 2012 and the 8S will ship shortly thereafter on November 15, 2012.

In looking at other Expansys sites, both HTC Windows Phone 8 devices appear to be available for pre-order across the board.  On Expansys U.S. the HTC 8X (unlocked) will run $629.99 and the HTC 8S (unlocked) will run $349.99. 

With the day winding down, impulse buys having already taken place and even Microsoft stock even getting low (more on that in a bit), we want to know…did you pre-order the Surface RT?

(Personally speaking, I’m waiting to buy on in a Microsoft Store because of my lucky geographical location. But if there weren’t one near me, I certainly would have pre-ordered. One caveat though: I’m not too thrilled with the “just black” option for the 64GB, something for which I hope to avoid in-store. You?)

With the official release of Windows 8 only weeks away we have already seen online listings for Windows 8 computers. Now we are seeing Windows 8 computers on store shelves.

The Best Buy in St. Cloud, MN has several laptops and desktops from HP on display running Windows 8. Based on the reports, the computers are running demo versions of Windows 8 to give you a feel for things. While you can check these new computers out in the store, you can't take them with you just yet. While the computers are in stock, Best Buy is only taking pre-orders for the HP Windows 8 computers.

Pre-order now, get it at the same time as everyone else

Preorders are kind of like the teaser preview in technology—they cost virtually nothing to produce but get a lot of people talking. Such is the case with Expansys now offering pre-orders for the ATIV S from Samsung.

The page is up both in Italy and even the US although there is no price listed nor ETA for a shipping date—in other words, they’re doing it for the links and headlines because let's be honest, this won't sellout early like the iPhone.

Although it's probably too early to tell how the AT&T Lumia 900 is doing (and the brunt of its popularity will undoubtedly come months from now), it's worthy to note that on Amazon Wireless, if you sort by best-sellers you get some interesting results.

For instance, by sorting under AT&T best-sellers, we can see the Lumia 900 (Black) is currently in the number #1 spot with the Cyan version holding on to number #3 (the venerable and popular Galaxy SII is in #2). That's not too bad a showing considering we're just talking about pre-orders for the phone and it has yet to get into anyone's hands, let alone reviews for the device.

Sorting without a carrier also yields some positive news with the Lumia 900 Black sitting at #6 and the Lumia 900 Cyan at #8 across all smartphones. The current number #1 position is held by the ridiculously named 'Motorola DROID RAZR MAXX 4G' which goes to show there's no lacking of bad and kitsch taste in the smartphone world.

What is perhaps most interesting, besides those solid rankings for a pre-order phone, is the fact that the Black Lumia is selling more than the Cyan. From general feedback and conversations with AT&T and Nokia, the Cyan version seemed to be the most anticipated. In fact, we're told that advertising would use the Cyan version of Nokia's phone over the Black to its more striking visual appeal.

Finally, while these pre-orders numbers are good news and it certainly reflects the buzz around the Lumia 900, as we mentioned earlier, the real test and interest will be weeks from now after the advertising blitz has kicked in, awareness goes up and the popular culture catches on. That's when we'll see whether Nokia and AT&Ts efforts have finally paid off.

Amazon Wireless began pre-orders on March 30th and were even offering it for a penny on a new contract.

Source: Amazon Wireless 1, 2; Thanks, J4rrod, for the tip

Although it took some time for AT&T to hit the refresh button on their site, we're happy to report you can now officially pre-order the Nokia Lumia 900 online.

That's right, in theory you won't have to actually talk to a human being to order the latest and greatest from the 'Ma Bell and their Finnish partners. Selling for $449.99 off-contract or $99 with one, the Lumia 900 is a good deal which ever way you purchase. What's more, we're told if you order soon you can get the phone by April 6th, a full two days before the stores will sell 'em to everyone else.

The 4.3" device with an AMOLED screen, 8MP camera (1MP front), 16GB of storage and 4G LTE is available in Cyan and Matte Black for now. For those who want the Glossy White, you'll have to wait till April 22nd and we're told only in-store purchases for that version. 

To start your preorder, simply go to AT&T's site here.

Although China seems to be grabbing all the headlines today for Windows Phone, the move into Latin America is also as important for the fledgling mobile OS.

We've mentioned in the past that Nokia would be bringing their Lumia series to Mexico this Spring and it looks like that schedule is being kept. Users can now pre-order the Lumia 710 and Lumia 800 on Movistar.

The Lumia 710, a budget-orientated smartphone with a 3.7" ClearBlack display and 5MP camera is perfect for those who are new to the smartphone game, while the Lumia 800 offers a more premium experience with its polycarbonate design, 8MP camera and AMOLED display. Both phones look to be competitively priced on Movistar with a $0 purchase for a 24 month contract (although the 800 has a higher-end contract to meet that requirement).

For more information, head to Movistar's page to sign up and learn more. Thanks, Victor H., for the heads up