Lumia 810

Microsoft formally unveiled its new Windows Phone 8 software, demonstrating several new features, and also emphasized the carrier support the platform is receiving from AT&T Mobility, T-Mobile USA and, perhaps most importantly, Verizon Wireless.

Verizon Wireless will launch the Nokia Lumia 822 smartphone, the carrier's second phone running Microsoft's Windows Phone software. The launch is a boost for Nokia, giving it another avenue to boost U.S. sales after a lackluster third quarter in which it sold 300,000 handsets in North America, half of what it sold in the first and second quarters.

Nokia has indicated that its third-quarter results, especially in its key devices and services unit, would be weak and that the quarter would be challenging. The question analysts are puzzling over is just how weak, and whether the company can continue the momentum behind its Lumia line of smartphones running Microsoft's Windows Phone software.

T-Mobile USA declared that Samsung's Galaxy S III is its all-time best-selling device. The crowing came just ahead of T-Mobile announcing new smartphones for the holiday shopping season from Nokia and LG Electronics.