AT&T had once claimed that the launch of the Nokia Lumia 900 was its biggest and the device was available for just under $100. With the S3 and iPhone 4 S breathing down its neck, AT&T has gone a step further and in an unprecedented move slashed the price of the Nokia Lumia 900 by half to a mere $49!

While seemingly cheaper compared to other high-end phones such as the Samsung Galaxy S3 and iPhone 4S (both are at least $199 on contract), the $49 price cut for the Nokia Lumia 900 is surely going to heat up the smartphone wars.

The new Nokia Lumia 900 price is live on AT&T's website where the smartphone is available ona two-year contract in various hues namely black, blue, white, and pink. The phone is effectively a bigger version of the Lumia 800 and has a 4.3-inch screen, 1.4GHz processor, and an 8-megapixel camera.

While no public reason for the price cut is known, pundits speculate that the announcement of Windows Phone 8 and the feature-limited Windows Phone 7.8, for existing handsets, may have caused the price cut. An attempt by the manufacturers to sell existing units before the new version of the operating system launches.

Microsoft said that the Windows Phone 8 doesn't fully work on Windows Phone 7 devices because of the differences in hardware. The Windows Phone 8 uses the Windows NT Kernel.

The Nokia Lumia 900 price cut could also be due to the lagging market share when compared to Google, Apple, or even RIM. Android has over 54 percent of the market while Apple is second with 36.3 percent. "Others," according to research firm Nielsen, which includes Windows Phone 7, take 5.9 percent of the pie.

In Q2 2012, sorting the percentage of mobile subscribers by manufacturer showed that Nokia held 0.3 percent share compared to Apple's 34 percent. In second place was Samsung with 17 percent and HTC with 14 percent, both developing for Android. Even though Apple releases only one smartphone every year it manages to rest on its laurels for quite some time.

However, all is not gray for Nokia and it can take some solace in keeping its users content. Research figures from Nielsen suggest that 96 percent of Lumia 900 users are happy with the device.

The smartphone battles get more interesting, Google recently announced its Nexus 7during the Google I/O in June, and the Galaxy Nexus last year, in collaboration with Asus and Samsung. Microsoft is releasing the Surface tablets around the "general availability of Windows 8," and when CEO Steve Ballmer was asked if the company would release a first-party smartphone by CRN it wasn't denied.

With the rivalry intensifying it is no surprise that Nokia Lumia 900 is looking to resort to unexpected ploys to stay in the race.