Nokia downgraded the retail price of its Lumia 900 smartphone over the weekend, a few months prior to the expected debut of Windows 8 operating system that Microsoft said would leave behind current crops of Windows phones.

The price drop from $US99 to $49, which mainly affects the Finnish phone maker's U.S. market, is seen by analysts as Nokia's grudging market adjustments following Microsoft's earlier manoeuvrings that left its smartphone offerings obsolete.

Earlier, Microsoft has indicated that its new platform has been engineered to upgrade the company's existing Windows versions - from XP to Windows 7 - but not the mobile OS that powers soon-to-be antiquated Windows-based smartphones.

The move doused cold water on efforts by Nokia to marginally capitalise on its present product lines prior to the anticipated release of Windows 8 later this year, which would be followed by the market entry of devices that would stand on the new product that Microsoft touted as its most important thrust in a decade.

It can also be viewed, experts said, as Nokia's admission that the Lumia lines, at least in their current forms, failed to make a dent in the global smartphone market that has been dominated either by Android or Apple handsets.

To be fair though, Nokia's Lumia 900, while late in the game, won the hearts of U.S. consumers that owned the phone, according to PC Magazine, but with an overhaul of the very system that runs the device already on the way, it became a victim of the excitement generated by Windows 8.

It appears that consumers postponed buying any brand of Windows phones to wait out for the Q4 issue of Windows 8 while those who snapped up gadgets in-between the gaps opted mostly for cheaper Androids, which can be had less than a hundred dollars with the added premium of an ecosystem that is virtually as extensive as that of Apple's.

Nokia branded its latest decision as integral to its 'lifecycle management', which understandably could be the mode that the struggling phone maker will adopt until such time that it regained even a fraction of its stature in the past years, when it ate up much of the market pie.

Market analyst agreed that the price cuts were normal especially when fresher product models were on the pipeline, noting too that even Apple and Samsung, currently the market leaders, roll out discounts of phone models that were set to be phased out.

The only difference though was Nokia has yet to register profits on the Lumia product lines, definitely a bad news for company shareholders, while the iPhone and Galaxy smartphones have been raking in millions for Apple and Samsung.

And with the Galaxy S3 already playing in the market and Apple reportedly set to push out the new iPhone 5, it could prove a bit difficult for Nokia to jostle its way to consumer hands come the holiday shopping season this year.

Microsoft itself has been modest on the company's professed prospect for the new Windows 8, calling the initial quarters of the product's market presence as mere establishment of an ecosystem that in the near future would match its rivals.

Hopefully, Nokia can still afford to play the waiting game while it attempts to shore up its flagging fortune, which in the past few quarters has been marred by en masse exodus of investors and sapping credit credibility.