The Finnish smartphone maker Nokia has reduced the prices of two of its top range smartphones by around 10 to 15 percent ahead of the launch of its latest line of Windows Phone 8 (WP8) devices, which are slated for a November launch.

Nokia may be hoping to boost sales of its existing smartphones before newer models hit the shelves. The price of Lumia 900 has been reduced by 10 percent and the price for Lumia 800 by around 15 percent in Europe. In the U.S., the price for Lumia 900 has been reduced from $99 to $49.99 on a two-year contract. The price cut "is part of our ongoing lifecycle management, which is jointly done between Nokia and carrier customers," said Nokia spokesman Keith Nowak.

The Lumia 900 is sold exclusively by AT&T in the U.S. The smartphone sports a 4.3-inch AMOLED capacitive touchscreen with 480 x 800 pixels resolution. The device also features an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera with, Carl Zeiss optics, autofocus, and dual-LED flash. A Qualcomm APQ8055 Snapdragon processor clocked at 1.4 GHz powers the device. The handset runs on Microsoft's Windows Phone 7.5 Mango operating system.

To keep pace with the ever-increasing competition in the smartphone market, Nokia launched the WP8-powered Lumia 820 and Lumia 920, which are expected to make way to the stores in November this year. The top-end Lumia 920 packs in high-end features and touts an 8.7-megapixel rear-facing camera. The Lumia 920 sports a 4.5-inch curved glass WXGA LCD display with 1280x768 pixels resolution. The device features PureMotion HD+, which has a superfast refresh rate and has better resolution than HD quality. A 1.5 GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 Processor powers the device.

Nokia has been a key player in the mobile handset market, but with the company late in offering smartphones, it lagged behind rivals in the hotly-contested smartphone race. Time will tell if the price reduction of older smartphone models and the launch of new WP8 handsets will turn around the fortunes of the company and reinstate its status as a strong market player.