Nokia's Lumia 920 Windows Phone is an AT&T exclusive

On October 4, AT&T announced it will be offering Nokia's first two officially announced Windows Phone 8 devices: The Lumia 920 and Lumia 820.

Given Nokia has been silent to date about U.S. carrier deals, that's the good news. The bad news for those of us not on AT&T: The Lumia 920, the higher-end model, is an AT&T exclusive, as AT&T told The Verge.

I guess this shouldn't be all that surprising, given Nokia launched with AT&T as its premier partner with Windows Phone 7.x in the U.S. and was rumored to be Nokia's preferred launch partner for Windows Phone 8.

Still, given rumors that Verizon might also be offering the Lumia 920 alongside the HTC 8X and 8S Windows Phones, I was hoping that we  Verizon users were going to have a bounty of Windows Phones from which to choose starting in November.

(For those who continue to ask me why I don't just switch from Verizon, which hasn't been a Windows Phone champion -- to put it mildly -- my reason is the Verizon data coverage in New York City cannot be beat. Places where AT&T phones don't work are places where my Verizon phone still works just fine. And this matters a lot to me.)

There's still a chance that Verizon may have a modified version of the Lumia 920... a Lumia 92X or some such. But so far neither Nokia nor Verizon has announced such a device. And if AT&T has a three-month exclusive on the 920 (something we don't know for sure, but some phone watchers are anticipating), that would mean none of the other U.S. carriers will have a high-end Lumia device in time for holiday 2012.

The Lumia 920 will be available in a variety of colors, including the Lumia flagship cyan blue (something Nokia has been coy about to date). The 820 will be available in black only.

Microsoft is slated to launch Windows Phone 8 on October 29. Windows Phone 8 devices are expected to begin shipping in early November across a number of carriers worldwide. Nokia, HTC and Samsung have taken the wraps off their Windows Phone 8 devices already, though they've been unable/unwilling to allow real reviews of any of them, since Microsoft is trying to hold back on disclosing so-far-officially-unannounced Windows Phone 8 features.

There's still no word on pricing for the Nokia 920 or 820 on AT&T.

By the way, if you want to compare specs across the so-far-announced Windows Phone 8 devices, WPCentral has a handy chart.