AT&T's had some huge product launches in the past — the first few generations of the iPhone among them — but it looks like the April 8th release of the Nokia Lumia 900 will be its biggest yet. AT&T's Jeff Bradley told CNET that "at all levels, this is a notch above anything we've ever done." The Lumia's hype doesn't seem to be at the level of the iPhone, but both AT&T and Microsoft are bent on changing that — the $99 phone will apparently be front-and-center in AT&T stores, and most employees have been given the device and trained extensively on how to use and sell it. All that, of course, is in addition to a huge marketing blitz from both companies.

"Before you walk in to the store, you know this is our hero phone," Bradley said, and for a company that also sells the iPhone 4S and the Samsung Galaxy S II, that's an aggressive statement. Microsoft, Nokia, and AT&T are all making huge bets on the Lumia 900 and on Windows Phone — Bradley said that the 900 is the product re-launching the Nokia brand — but only time will tell if the promotion can bring Nokia and Windows Phone into serious contention.