Okay, Marketplace brethren and sistren, cue up the Stormy Weather music because now we talk about Nokia, which has suffered horrific financials. A 1.2 billion dollar loss has just been reported as the company saw sales pretty much drop off the table since the only people buying handset cell phones are props departments for TV shows (have you noticed that no one on TV has smartphones?).
Nokia has pinned its hopes on the Lumia 900 smartphone, which runs on the Windows Phone platform. Which has to be terrifying, pinning your future to a Windows Phone. But there’s evidence that these things are being bought at least someplaces.

Says CNET:

Initial sales of the company’s Lumia 710 at T-Mobile and the newly launched Lumia 900 on AT&T have been strong. The company said that more than 2 million Lumia 900 devices sold in the first few days and was a best seller on Amazon.com. But the company has had trouble in markets such as the U.K., where it initially launched the Lumia 800 and Lumia 710.

Realistically, a strong Nokia and Windows Phone would invite more people to build on that platform and offer a solid third choice of phone platforms to people, which would be nice.

AND! The new ads for the phone are pretty funny. Chris Parnell is in them, so that’s always good.

Obviously, the Microsoft marketing people weren’t allowed anywhere near them.