Nokia's Lumia 900 is now available to customers in Canada.

The device, Nokia's flagship
Windows Phone 7 model, is now available to Rogers Communications customers, Nokia Canada announced today. The Lumia 900 retails for the same $99.99 price tag consumers will find it for in the U.S., but Rogers customers will only get that pricing with "select" three-year plans.

The Lumia 900, which is available to AT&T customers in the U.S., has gotten off to a stellar start. Just yesterday, the device became the top-seller on Amazon, beating out the Droid Razr Maxx from Motorola Mobility and the Samsung Galaxy Nexus. In CNET's review of the handset, it received four stars out of five, earning it an "excellent" rating.

Nokia's Lumia 900 comes with Windows Phone 7 and a 4.3-inch display. It's the first of Nokia's Windows Phone 7 models to boast 4G LTE connectivity.

Android has ruled the U.S. smartphone market share for months and months now, and based on a new report, Google's mobile OS will only continue to grow stronger.

But that could be helped in part by a factor that still proves to be a barrier for some consumers when it comes to smartphones: pricing.

A new report from market intelligence firm In-Stat asserts that 339 million low-cost
Android smartphones will ship worldwide in 2015. Low-cost is defined at $150 and under. Right now, most smartphones start at $199 with the signing of a two-year service agreement.

The group argues that mobile phone consumers only have one choice for a mobile operating system in this budget-friendly category, and that would be Android. As Ice Cream Sandwich and further (and better) versions of Android OS roll out in the future, older versions can still be made useful.

In-Stat research director Allen Nogee explained in a statement:

The low-cost Android handset segment will cause some fragmentation in the Android platform. Most low-cost Android smartphones are likely to be released with Android 2.2 or 2.3, since these versions are a good blend of features with modest memory and processor usage. The Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0) step-up in memory and processor demands makes this release less attractive for low-cost Android devices.

However, that argument could certainly be applied to other mobile platforms. Just look at the
iPhone 3GS. That device is selling for free with a two-year contract, and the
iPhone 4 now retails for $99 on-contract, which is an incredible steal if you can settle for 8GB of space and don't care about Siri.

In-Stat also acknowledges that this particular smartphone market is Android's to lose as this space "could get much more competitive, especially as other OS vendors begin to target the space." The study cites Huawei, MicroMax, Motorola, Samsung, Spice, and ZTE as potential competitors, mainly because these low-cost devices will be built to at 600MHz speeds or less with a single-core EDGE chip that costs less than $10.

At least that's the idea for the short-term. By 2015, the price points on smartphones and the materials that go in them could be drastically different. After all, if an iPhone 4S can be made for $188 apiece now, smartphone parts could be very well much cheaper in the next few years.

This post first appeared on ZDNet's Between the Lines blog.

After much fanfare, a minor pre-order meltdown, and what was perhaps the largest collection of Apple software updates to go out in a single week, the next
iPhone arrives tomorrow.

If it feels like a long time since the
iPhone 4 went on sale, you're not mistaken. The iPhone 4S, Apple's follow-up to the iPhone 4, comes a few months later than Apple has typically released previous handsets, and it seems even longer given that leaks led to the world seeing the final design months before it was officially unveiled.

From the looks of it, Apple appears to have used that extra time to polish the latest version of its iOS software, which went out to users yesterday, as well as to ready Siri, the iPhone 4S exclusive voice assistant that's being launched as an uncharacteristic "beta." That's not all that's different though. This year's launch brings a number of other changes, which we've detailed beneath.

More carriers

When the iPhone 4 launched (and every previous iPhone for that matter), the only carrier you could get it on in the U.S. was AT&T.

This time around your choices are more spread out with the addition of Verizon and newcomer Sprint. For those who bought the iPhone 4 from Verizon when it launched on the carrier earlier this year, there's probably a twinge of anger there, however those buyers had some idea of what they were getting themselves into.

So will two more carriers make things more complicated for Apple tomorrow morning? Based on the
iPad 2 launch earlier this year, which included 18 different model possibilities--including different 3G-enabled models for GSM and CDMA carriers--probably not.

Outside of the U.S., the iPhone 4S is also launching through KDDI in Japan.

More countries

The phone is launching in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, and the U.K. at the same time. By comparison, last year's device did not arrive in Canada for some three months after the launch in other countries in that same group.

At last week's event, Apple pledged to get the 4S in 70 countries on more than 100 carriers by December.

Unlocked version from the get go (for some)

Besides the existing lineup of devices attached to carriers, Apple's offering an unlocked version of the iPhone 4S from the get go--at least in places like the U.K. and Europe.

In the U.S., Apple has promised an unlocked iPhone 4S in November. By comparison, it took Apple about a year to begin offering an unlocked version of the iPhone 4 in the U.S.

Worth noting is that despite being a world phone, working on CDMA and GSM carriers, the unlocked version of the device will only work on GSM networks.

More stores

Not counting Sprint retail stores in the U.S., there are now other places to get Apple's new phone where you couldn't a year ago. That includes Sam's Club, which announced its deal to sell Apple's iOS gadgets last October, along with Target, which began selling Apple's iPhones last November.

More colors

The iPhone 4 was originally promised in two colors, but what we ended up with was a 10-month wait for white version. In an interview with AllThingsD in April, the day the white version launched, Apple senior vice president Phil Schiller described the process of making that color "challenging" both in how the color held up over time and how it interacted with the phone's internal sensors.

Since last year's launch, Apple's offered a white iPad 2 on its first day of release and began offering a white version of the iPod Touch, which hit stores yesterday.

More configurations

For the first time ever, Apple's selling three variations of the newest model, while selling last year's model and the 3GS. All told, that's five phones--at least on AT&T.

The big thing here is the move to three capacities from the get go: the 16GB, 32GB and the top of the line 64GB model, which retails for $399, a return to the original iPhone's price after it's controversial cut. Will people be lining up for an iPhone 3GS or a 4 tomorrow? Not unless they've made a horrible mistake.

New add-ons

Last but not least, Apple's rolling out the iPhone 4S with a brand new version of its AppleCare service called AppleCare+. This optional protection boosts the iPhone's warranty from 90 days of tech support to two years. The plus at the end adds accidental damage to that protection. On top of the $99 cost of the service, buyers who have damaged their iPhones in an accident can get a replacement for a $49 fee. This works twice, before you have to start paying full price for a replacement.

What should make tomorrow interesting is that this new level of AppleCare service requires that users buy it at the time of purchasing their new iPhone, unlike the original AppleCare, which gave users a year from the time of purchase to buy and activate it. That could mean a lot of folks making the move buy AppleCare+ with their iPhones, the same way Apple was pushing its bumper cases with last year's model.

The iPhone goes on sale at 8 a.m. local time at Apple Stores and through the company's carrier and retail partners, and CNET will be on the scene to bring you news about the launch.

When a security suite vendor tells you that they've "overhauled" their programs, often the changes are somewhere between a new coat of paint and an oil change. In re-branding its products under the name Webroot SecureAnywhere, Webroot has also re-written their software from the ground up. Webroot SecureAnywhere Antivirus (download), Webroot SecureAnywhere Essentials (download) and Webroot SecureAnywhere Complete (download) come with the tiniest, fastest installers in the security suite scene, new cloud-based protection, and free mobile apps as part of an effort to protect users across multiple machines and devices. Android (download) and iOS (download) versions are available as well.

It's hard to understate how impressive the new Webroot installer is. It's so miniscule that you measure its size in kilobytes, not megabytes. Weighing in at a feather-light 560 KB, this stub installer winds up downloading and installing the full suite in under a minute.

"The screenshot is bigger than product," said Joe Jaroch, a senior software engineer at Webroot during a meeting at CNET's San Francisco office at the end of August. The lead developer of SecureAnywhere smiled when he said that, but he wasn't joking. A high-resolution screenshot of SecureAnywhere really can be larger than the program itself.

Michael Malloy, Executive Vice President of Products and Strategy at Webroot, explained how the program worked to keep Webroot users safe. "We coupled the ultra-small client with the world's largest database of malware," he said. "So the way the agent works is to first analyze [a file], send a hash of it to the cloud, and check it." If the file is recognized as safe, the cloud pings the local installation of SecureAnywhere and tells you it's safe. "If it hasn't, it sandboxes the sample, tests the behavior, and then sends a description of the sample behavior to the cloud. The cloud then says whether its recognized or malicious," Malloy said.

Jaroch noted, "We don't want our researchers to ever have to run a sample. The database is what runs the sample. We assume that we'll miss some malware at some point, so Trojans, and keyloggers are blocked generically. It's a substantial departure from what the others are doing."

Three corporate purchases gave Webroot the foundation it wanted for SecureAnywhere. A company called Usable Security, which specialized in identity management and passwords, contributed features now in SecureAnywhere Complete. San Diego-based BrightCloud brought domain and IP address classification, reputation, and scoring to the mix. The core of SecureAnywhere, however, comes from the United Kingdom-based Prevx.

Webroot SecureAnywhere Complete, the premium version of the suite, comes with a mostly-competitive range of features. It lacks parental controls, a glaring omission for a suite that retails at $79.95. It does come with 10 GB of online storage, password sync,
Android and iOS apps, mobile/desktop sync, a password generator, online shopping and banking guards, and automatic login. Most of Webroot's password services has been licensed from LastPass.

Webroot SecureAnywhere Essentials costs $59.95, and although it doesn't have any of the advanced password or mobile features, it does offer an industry-standard 2 GB of online storage, file shredder, firewall, and browsing tracks wiper. Of course, Complete comes with all that, as well.

The basic Webroot SecureAnywhere Antivirus offers simple protection for $39.95. It guards you against common threats like viruses and rootkits, but also against unknown threats based on their suspicious behavior, prevents your browser from resolving harmful Web sites, and locks down your settings so malware can't change them.

CNET Labs benchmarks will be added here later today, although initial, real-world tests of the suites indicate that they are all that and a bag of chips, if by "all that" you mean "all that they claim to be." Scans are fast, the install was even faster, and there's quite a bit of solid value-added features in the premium versions.

However, it doesn't appear that Webroot has yet to submit the suites for third-party threat detection and removal efficacy testing. Until it does so, it's difficult to evaluate the program on how safe it will make you because so much has changed under the hood.

Sony's
PlayStation 3 could outsell the
Xbox 360 this holiday season if Microsoft doesn't cut the price of its console, Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter said in an interview published yesterday with IndustryGamers.

"If Microsoft does nothing, I think PS3 will outsell Xbox 360," Pachter told IndustryGamers. "However, my friends at Microsoft are extremely proud, and they absolutely refuse to tolerate the possibility that the PS3 will outsell the Xbox 360. I think they have the ads printed for the Xbox 360 price cut, and will drop them on us the instant they see PS3 sales greater than 360 sales."

The pressure is on Microsoft. Last month, Sony announced that it was cutting the price of its 160GB PlayStation 3 to $249. The move, which came as a surprise, left the 250GB Xbox 360 behind as the most expensive option on the market at $299. However, Microsoft does offer a 4GB Xbox 360 model for $199. The
Nintendo Wii currently retails for $150.

Related stories:

• Sony dishes on PlayStation 3 sales, PSN growth

• Five reasons to cash in on the PS3 at $249

• PlayStation 3 drops $50 off all models

If Sony is able to capitalize on its cheaper price tag and top the Xbox 360 in sales this holiday season, it would be one of the few times the PlayStation 3 maker could stake claim to the console crown. Over the last 14 months, the Xbox 360 has led U.S. console sales in 13 of them. What's more, over the lives of all three consoles, the Wii and the Xbox 360 are outstripping the PlayStation 3's sales.

However, on a worldwide basis, Sony is coming on strong. According to its own tally, the company sold 3.5 million PlayStation 3 units worldwide in its 2006 fiscal year. That figure jumped to 9.1 million and 10.1 million in its 2007 and 2008 fiscal years, respectively. During its 2009 fiscal year, Sony sold 13 million PlayStation 3 units, while last year, it had a total of 14.3 million units sold. Including the 1.8 million units Sony sold in its first fiscal quarter this year, the company has sold a total of 51.8 million PlayStation 3 units worldwide.

In June, Microsoft announced that it had sold 55 million Xbox 360 units worldwide since that console's launch. At the end of June, Nintendo's Wii sales were nearly 88 million.

Whether or not the PlayStation 3's recent price cut will help Sony finally catch the Xbox 360 remains to be seen. But for now, it appears Sony will hold the high ground against Microsoft on the pricing front.

According to Pachter, writing in a research note today, he doesn't expect Microsoft to cut the price of its console "until after the holidays or until sales decline dramatically." However, Pachter does believe that Microsoft will cut the price of its Kinect bundles. Those bundles, which feature both the Xbox 360 and Kinect motion-gaming peripheral, are currently on sale for $299 and $399 for the 4GB console and 250GB console, respectively. He didn't say how much Microsoft might discount those bundles if it follows through with the expected cut.

Microsoft did not immediately respond to CNET's request for comment.

commentary The BlackBerry Bold may be out of the smartphone game before it even gets into it.

T-Mobile USA said today that it will sell RIM's latest flagship phone, the BlackBerry Bold 9900, for $299.99--after a $50 mail-in rebate. That follows the Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel variant of the smartphone, the Bold 9930, which will retail for $249.99 at both carriers.

But when the bar for a vast majority of smartphones--even high-end ones such as Apple's
iPhone--is set at $200, and you go over, that's a problem. For RIM, the premium price is going to be a critical problem as the company attempts to claw its way back to the top of the smartphone hill.

"I would describe that charitably as insane," said Avi Greengart, who covers consumer electronic products for Current Analysis.

Granted, there are a lot of factors that go into deciding the price of a phone. The carriers may not deem the two Bolds worthy of a larger subsidy, and would rather take the risk on selling the pricier devices. Or RIM may be selling a more expensive product to the carrier. Generally, carriers will set the ultimate price, but there are a lot of unknown variables to consider.

RIM declined to comment for this story. Sprint wasn't available to comment on the pricing.

Verizon Wireless said it considers the Bold to be a premium device.

"It's a competitive business, and we price our products appropriately," said Verizon representative Brenda Raney.

T-Mobile, meanwhile, said the Bold offers customers "great value" when factoring in its lower-priced smartphone plans.

Despite who sets the price, at $250 to $300, RIM risks the perception that it believes the Bold is the premier smartphone in the market. And while it's perfectly fine for a company to believe in the strength of its products, that belief doesn't jibe with the market perception of these devices. At fault or not, the pricing speaks to the growing view that the company's management may not be in touch with consumers' tastes anymore.

The pricing isn't as dramatic in other markets. Vodafone in the U.K. is giving the Bold away with a two-year contract, while Telus in Canada is selling the phone for $149.99, while rival Bell Canada is selling it for $169.95. Both carriers, however, require a longer three-year contract.

The carriers may be banking on the prospect that the BlackBerry faithful and individuals tied to a BlackBerry for work will make the leap regardless of the price tag. The corporate crowd is typically more affluent than the average consumer.

But for the consumer, there are too many other options. At T-Mobile, the HTC Sensation and MyTouch 4G Slide, which garnered rave reviews, both retail for $199.99. At Sprint, the Motorola Photon 4G and the HTC Evo 3D, considered to be Sprint's two best smartphones, also retail for $199.99.

Verizon Wireless, however, does offer more expensive phones. A version of the iPhone 4 with double the memory of the standard version retails for $299.99. The Droid Charge from Samsung Electronics and the HTC Thunderbolt also carry a premium, but the extra cost is largely attributed to its 4G LTE capabilities.

The Bold is no slouch of a device. While it still lacks a strong library of applications and offers less access to content, RIM worked hard to improve its latest flagship phone. The device has won praise for its revamped software and solid keyboard, as well as the continued strength of its messaging system.

Still, getting the wrong price out of the gate can be disastrous for a product. Motorola Mobility made that mistake by pricing its Xoom
tablet at $799.99 through Verizon Wireless, and offering a $599.99 WiFi-only version that was still pricier than the
iPad 2. Sales were mixed until the price cut, according to Chief Executive Sanjay Jha.

Verizon currently sells for the Xoom for $499.99 with a two-year contract.

Likewise, Motorola's decision to sell a bundle including its Atrix smartphone and a laptop dock for $599 led to a lukewarm response by AT&T customers, necessitating a price cut.

RIM could also be forced to quickly cut the price of its Bold. But that comes with its own hazards. Hewlett-Packard quickly slashed the price of its TouchPad by $100, but that hasn't spurred sales. Instead, consumers who were interested are pausing to see if further discounts will come, leading to a high amount of unsold inventory at Best Buy, AllThingsD reported yesterday.

RIM wants to have a solid presence in both the business and consumer world. It may have more success with some of its other devices, including the BlackBerry Torch, which will retail for a smartly priced $49.99 at AT&T.

But those aspiring to get a Bold may end up doing a double take.

"For people on the fence about staying on with BlackBerry," Greengart said, "there's no way they're staying."