Finance Blog number 1

General Motors said Tuesday that it will stop paid advertising on Facebook.

The automaker says it will still be on the social networking site, it just won’t be spending money to buy ads.

"We regularly review our overall media spend and make adjustments as needed," GM said in a statement. "This happens as a regular course of business and it’s not unusual for us to move things around various media outlets."

GM (, Fortune 500) has fan pages for its various brands, such as Buick, Chevrolet and Opel, as well as for General Motors itself. Those pages will continue to be updated, according to the company.

But the social media paid ads simply weren’t delivering the hoped-for buyers, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal Tuesday.

GM had been spending $10 million on paid Facebook ads, according to the Journal report.

A spokesman for GM would not confirm how much money GM spent on Facebook ads cash advance no faxing. Facebook, also, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

GM’s advertising represents a tiny part of the $3.7 billion Facebook brought in in advertising revenue last year, but the move does indicate that ads placed on the site have proven disappointing for at least one major advertiser.

GM rival Ford (, Fortune 500), meanwhile, says it is accelerating its advertising efforts on Facebook and other social media platforms.

"We’ve found Facebook ads to be very effective when strategically combined with engagement, great content and innovative ways of storytelling," Ford spokeswoman Kelli Felker said in an e-mail.

Facebook will soon launch an initial public offering. 

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JPMorgan’s surprise $2 billion trading loss prompted a sell-off in financial stocks Friday, but the broader market rose as investors decided this was a problem for investment banks and not other industries.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 31 points in morning trading after bouncing back from a 76-point decline. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose four points to 1,362. The Nasdaq composite index, which is heavily weighted with technology stocks, was up 20 points at 2,954.

Financial stocks in the S&P fell 1 percent, while the other nine industry groups rose. For that, the other investment banks could thank JPMorgan, America’s biggest bank. The stock plunged 8 percent, dragging other banks with big Wall Street operations down with it. Morgan Stanley fell 4.3 percent and Goldman Sachs fell 3 percent.

Retail-focused banks fared better. Bank of America and Wells Fargo each declined just 0.3 percent.

JPMorgan’s blunder comes in the midst of a political battle over how closely to regulate banks, though JP Morgan’s CEO Jamie Dimon said the trades would not have been affected by the so-called Volcker rule, expected to take effect this summer. Still, the $2 billion loss is sure to be used as ammunition by those pushing for tighter regulation of investment banks.

Tech stocks did well. Intel rose 1.8 percent after it told analysts that it is on track to meet sales expectations. Tech investors were relieved to hear that one day after Cisco Systems prompted selling in tech shares by being pessimistic about sales. Microsoft shares rose 2 percent. Semiconductor maker Nvidia jumped 8.6 percent, the most in the S&P 500, after reporting revenue that was higher than analysts were expecting.

Consumer discretionary stocks were also up. Retailer Bed Bath & Beyond jumped 4.5 percent, one of the biggest gains in the S&P 500 index, and video streaming and DVD-by-mail company Netflix rose 6.6 percent.

Also Friday, the Labor Department said that the producer price index, which measures price changes before they reach the consumer, dropped 0.2 percent last month. It was the first decline since December and the biggest drop since October. Declines were driven by gas and energy prices. That’s good news for consumer spending.

Separately, a closely watched measure of consumer confidence from the University of Michigan released Friday morning was better than analysts had expected. The index was at its highest level since January 2008.

Crude and gasoline futures slid again. Oil fell 44 cents to $96.64 per barrel. Gold prices fell a half-percent to $1,587.70 per ounce.

European stocks were mixed. France’s CAC 40 index fell 0.3 percent, but Britain’s FTSE 100 rose by the same percentage and Germany’s DAX rose 0.7 percent. Borrowing costs for Germany and France fell, while costs for Italy and Spain rose as investors remain focused on Greece, where another general election is expected for next month following the failure of attempts to form a government.

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The Empire State Building is on an energy diet.

The hulking building, a symbol of American power and, to some, excess, has cut its energy use by 20%.

And that’s just due to changes to the building’s exterior. Once retrofits are made to tenant spaces on the inside, the second tallest building in Manhattan will be nearly 40% more efficient.

The retrofits will cost $20 million once they’re complete, and are expected to save the owners $4.4 million in annual energy costs.

"After one year, we have proven that investing in energy efficiency gives building owners a dollars-and-cents advantage," said Dave Myers, a president at Johnson Controls, which conducted the retrofit.

The renovations are part of a $500 million rehab plan for the building. The building’s owners, Malkin Holdings LLC, filed for an initial public offering back in February which valued the building at $2.5 billion.

The changes to the Empire State include:

–Filling the existing windows with an energy saving gas and adding an additional plastic pane.

–Upgrading the building’s cooling system.

–Using computerized "smart" energy management technology that can adjust temperatures floor by floor.

–Provide tenants with detailed energy use in their space.

–Automatically shut off lights in unused areas.

Greenest states to own an electric car

The move to make the Empire State Building more efficient was announced three years ago amid much fanfare — Bill Clinton and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg were in attendance at a press conference from the building’s 80th floor.

Energy efficiency often gets less attention than oil drilling, wind turbines or solar panels when it comes to tackling America’s energy challenge.

Yet efficiency often offers the biggest energy saving opportunity, and at a fraction of the cost of new sources.

Buildings account for 40% of the country’s energy use, and an average home emits twice as much carbon dioxide as the average car.

But the country has made some impressive gains in the efficiency arena, both since the energy crisis of the 1970s and more recently amid high oil prices.

The average refrigerator today uses a quarter of the energy it did in the 1970s, said Lowell Ungar, policy director at the Alliance to Save Energy.

In the last couple of years the government has taken steps to make furnaces, air conditioners and refrigerators even more efficient, said Ungar. It has also begun the phase-out of the notoriously inefficient incandescent light bulb.

On the building front, recommended building codes for both commercial and residential structures are 30% more efficient today than they were in 2006, said William Fay, executive director of the Energy Efficient Codes Coalition. By 2015, building codes are expected to be 50% more efficient.

Not all the all states have adopted these stricter codes, said Fay, and that’s one of the challenges in saving even more energy.

Auto efficiency has made major strides in the last few years. George W. Bush famously raised fuel efficiency standards for the first time in decades during the last days of his administration, and Obama has accelerated the trend.

Fuel efficiency standards have gone from 27 miles per gallon in 2006 to a target of 35.5 miles per gallon in 2016. By 2025 vehicles are supposed to average nearly 55 miles per gallon.

That’s a doubling of fuel efficiency.

"We are twice as energy efficient as a county today as were were 20 or 30 years ago," Daniel Yergin, Chairman of the consultancy IHS CERA and one of the world’s foremost energy analysts, said in recent Senate testimony. "And we ought to become twice as efficient again." 

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Switzerland’s biggest bank UBS AG reported a 54 percent drop in first-quarter net profit for 2012 that it blamed Wednesday on a loss at the investment bank, an accounting charge on its debt and difficult market conditions.

First-quarter net profit fell to 827 million francs ($910 million) from 1.81 billion francs in the same period last year, the bank reported before trading opened in Zurich. The results did not meet analysts’ average estimate for a net profit of 1.2 billion Swiss francs ($1.32 billion).

UBS also offered a somewhat grim outlook for the second quarter of 2012, owing to Europe’s sovereign debt crisis, the U.S. federal deficit and continuing global uncertainties.

“Failure to make progress on these key issues would make further improvements in prevailing market conditions unlikely and would have the potential to continue the headwinds for revenue growth, net interest margins and net new money,” the bank reported.

Chief Executive Officer Sergio P. Ermotti said despite the “challenging market conditions” the bank had performed well.

“We improved operational performance across all our businesses, strengthened our leading capital ratios further, reduced risk-weighted assets and remained vigilant on costs,” he said in a statement. “The strong net new money inflows in our wealth management businesses provide further clear evidence of the trust our clients place in UBS.”

It was just the second quarter for the bank under the leadership of Ermotti, who took over in September with the aim of restoring clients’ trust following a case of alleged rogue trading in its investment bank that cost UBS $2 billion. Ermotti pledged to tighten oversight at UBS and restructure the ailing investment banking unit where the trading scandal occurred.

Last month, the specter of a damaging tax evasion case rose again. After resolving a long-running tax probe in the United States with a $780 million fine and the handover of thousands of client files, UBS now faces allegations by former staff in France that it also helped French clients cheat on their taxes.

The bank strenuously denies the allegations and says it will defend itself using “appropriate legal means.”

The first-quarter results for 2012 also were a turnaround from the last quarter of 2011 when the bank, Switzerland’s biggest by market capitalization, posted a net profit of 319 million francs.

Rival Credit Suisse reported a 95 percent drop in first-quarter net profit last week due to writedowns, staff severance costs, bonus payments and the strong Swiss franc.

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U.K. services, manufacturing and construction probably waned this month as Bank of England policy makers prepare to discuss whether they need to extend stimulus after the economy slipped back into recession.

A gauge of factory activity based on a survey of purchasing managers will fall to 51.5 from 52.1 in March, according to the median estimate of 27 forecasts in a Bloomberg News poll. A reading above 50 indicates expansion. An index of services, the largest part of the economy, will decline to 54.1 from 55.3, while a construction measure will also fall, separate surveys of economists show.

U.K. gross domestic product fell in the first quarter, pushing the economy into its first double-dip recession since the 1970s. While Bank of England officials have said that may hurt confidence, they must balance that risk with the threat from faster-than-targeted inflation at their May 9-10 meeting.

He gets colonic irrigations, Botox injections and vitamin drips, and insists on black toilet paper in his home.

A revealing new biography offers intimate _ some might say too intimate _ details about Simon Cowell, along with a portrait of the entertainment mogul’s savvy business side.

“Sweet Revenge: The Intimate Life of Simon Cowell” is written by British journalist and biographer Tom Bower, whose previous subjects include former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, jailed media mogul Conrad Black and ex-Harrods owner Mohammad al-Fayed.

His latest portrait of power centers on the tanned and brush-cut Cowell, 52, who has gained fame in both Britain and North America as producer and an acerbic judge on TV talent shows including “The X Factor” and “America’s Got Talent.”

Bower says he became fascinated by the story of a middle-aged music producer who struck gold by turning the old-fashioned talent contest into a slick 21st-century phenomenon _ and in the process earned a fortune estimated at 200 million pounds ($320 million) by the Sunday Times Rich List.

The book paints a picture of a man who struggled for years in the music business, spurred on to success out of a desire to prove his detractors wrong.

“He had 20 years _ more than 20 years _ of humiliation,” Bower said. “At school he was a total failure and as a music producer he was a total failure.

“But what he did have was charm and an ability to understand the music business because of all this failure.”

“Sweet Revenge,” published in the U.S. by Ballantine Books on Tuesday, is billed as the first book about Cowell written with the mogul’s participation _ though not his authorization. Bower spent many hours with Cowell aboard his private jet, at his Los Angeles home and on his yacht in the south of France and the Caribbean.

But he says Cowell told some friends and associates not to talk to him. Writing the book became “a cat and mouse game” between him and his subject.

“He clearly wanted his story told properly, but there are parts he didn’t want told and it was up to me to find out about them,” Bower said.

Cowell has stressed that the book was not written with his approval, tweeting: “This book is not written by me. It is unauthorized. The writer is Tom Bower.”

Cowell can’t have enjoyed the revelations in The Sun tabloid, which has been serializing the more salacious bits of Bower’s book.

Among the details: Cowell gets regular colonic irrigations because “it’s so cleansing _ and it makes my eyes shine brighter.” He is put on a drip of vitamins and nutrients for a half hour each week.

He’s not gay, despite long-standing rumors. The book reveals bedroom secrets including a brief affair with former “X Factor” judge Danii Minogue. But Bower says that Cowell isn’t interested in serious relationships.

“He is only interested in women who are uninhibited and uncomplicated,” Bower said. “He is not interested in relationships. He’s a schoolboy my credit score.”

He is, however, generous. Bower says Cowell gave his ex-fiance Mezhgan Hussainy, a makeup artist on “American Idol,” a $5 million Beverly Hills house as a parting gift. Most of his exes have refrained from spilling the beans in the media.

While Britain’s tabloids have focused on Cowell’s sex life, Bower is more interested in the story of money and power, of “business rivalry and the skullduggery.”

At the heart of the book is Cowell’s feud with fellow svengali and former Spice Girls manager Simon Fuller. The pair fell out over the 2001 British musical talent-show, “Pop Idol,” progenitor of “American Idol.” Fuller was listed as creator of the show despite what Cowell said was a verbal agreement to split the credit.

A legal battle between the two men was settled out of court, with Fuller getting the creator credit for “Idol” _ though Bower says he found “overwhelming” evidence that Cowell played a vital role.

Bower said Cowell was “naive and humiliated by Fuller’s dexterity.”

“He didn’t understand the importance of owning a format,” Bower said. “He learnt his lesson.”

He said Cowell became “incensed” by the “created by Simon Fuller” credit on “Pop Idol” and “American Idol,” and vowed to create his own rival show.

The result was singing competition “X Factor,” which had its debut in Britain in 2004 and in the U.S. last fall. Cowell also created “Britain’s Got Talent” and executive produces its U.S. spinoff, “America’s got Talent.”

Cowell’s response to the book, published in Britain on Friday, is so far unknown.

Publicist Max Clifford _ who says Cowell pays him hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to keep stories out of the press _ said he had advised Cowell not to speak to Bower, because it would undo years of carefully protected privacy.

“He knows it was a mistake,” Clifford said.

“For Simon, who has protected his privacy and never, ever spoken about his relationships with anybody, to suddenly be quoted about this, that and the other is to me very damaging.

“Having created an image that’s been hugely successful, to see him damage it like that is sad and disappointing,” Clifford said.

Bower, though, thinks the book’s portrait of Cowell is fairly positive.

While Bower has been openly hostile to some of his previous subjects _ he called Gordon Brown a ruthless bully and Conrad Black a crook _ he has a soft spot for Cowell.

“He’s not a crook,” Bower said. “So far he hasn’t sued me. And it was good fun.

“He doesn’t sit on his laurels. That’s what’s endearing about him. Although he is vain, he is a perfectionist and a professional _ and he understands the business better than most.”

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Jill Lawless can be reached at: http://twitter.com/JillLawless

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Iraq’s oil ministry said Thursday that the U.S. oil giant Exxon Mobil Corp. is not allowed to bid in the May energy auction because of its oil deals with the northern self-ruled Kurdish region in Iraq.

The Texas-based Exxon signed six deals with the Kurds last October to search for oil in six areas, bypassing the Baghdad government, which maintains that it must ratify all deals. Some of the deals cover areas located in a land claimed by both Kurds and Arabs.

Deputy head of the Oil Ministry’s Licensing and Petroleum Contracts Department, Sabah al-Saidi, told The Associated Press that the reason for the move was Exxon’s refusal to abandon its controversial deals with Kurds.

“Exxon has been removed from the list of qualified companies because it refused to abandon the deals with the Kurdish region as requested by the Ministry of Oil,” al-Saidi said.

The Kurds and Arab-led government in Baghdad have been at loggerheads over who has the final say in resources development. They have unilaterally signed scores of oil deals, mostly with mid-sized companies which Baghdad considers illegal and has blacklisted the companies involved.

Baghdad recently said that Exxon sent two letters, assuring that it would freeze the deals until the central government and the Kurds resolve their differences. But the Kurds have maintained the deals are still valid and that Exxon is committed to them.

Thursday’s announcement came as the Oil Ministry published the final list of 47 oil companies that are qualified to bid in the May 30-31 bidding round for 12 exploration blocs nationwide.

Nearly 70 percent of the blocs on offer hold natural gas blocs and the rest a combination of oil and gas. They are expected to add about 29 trillion cubic feet of natural gas to the current 126.7 trillion cubic feet in reserves, and about 10 billion barrels of oil to the current 143.1 billion barrels of oil.

Since 2008, Iraq has awarded 15 oil and gas deals to international energy companies, the first major investments in the country’s energy industry in more than three decades.

Under a previous deal with Baghdad, Exxon and Shell are developing one of Iraq’s biggest oil fields, the 8.6 billion-barrel West Qurna Stage 1 field in southern Basra province.

Baghdad aims to raise the daily output to 12 million barrels by 2017 _ a level that would put it nearly on par with Saudi Arabia’s current production capacity.

Many analysts say that target is unrealistic, because of the degraded state of the industry’s infrastructure after wars and an international embargo that lasted more than a decade.

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President Barack Obama is returning to his familiar agenda of righting the U.S. economy and winning a second term, wrapping up three days of Latin American summitry that yielded mixed results and were clouded by a Secret Service scandal.

Domestic issues are immediately on tap, with the Senate scheduled to vote Monday on Obama’s proposal to increase taxes on millionaires. The proposal stands little chance of passing Congress, but Obama has cast it as an election-year theme as he seeks to paint sharp contrasts between himself and his likely Republican challenger, Mitt Romney.

Obama returned to Washington late Sunday with a key free trade deal with Colombia ready to be fully enforced next month and with important face time with Latin American leaders that cannot hurt his diplomatic outreach.

But the weekend trip to Cartagena, Colombia, for the sixth Summit of the Americas also underscored old and new fissures that exist between the United States and its southern neighbors, from the U.S. isolation of Cuba to calls by some Latin American leaders to defang the violent drug cartels by legalizing drugs.

The trip was clouded by unseemly allegations against Secret Service personnel and military service members working on security in Cartagena ahead of Obama’s arrival. Obama, at a press conference in Cartagena, said that if the accusations, proved true “of course I’ll be angry.”

The Secret Service sent 11 agents home and placed them on leave for misconduct as the agency investigates what happened. Five members of the military working with the Secret Service were confined to quarters, pending an investigation into an alleged prostitution scandal.

“I expect that investigation to be thorough, and I expect it to be rigorous,” Obama said. “We are representing the people of the United States, and when we travel to another country, I expect us to observe the highest standards.”

The story could also be kept alive in Congress where at least one Republican committee chairman suggested the scandal may not be an isolated incident.

Obama began moving forward to domestic issues even as he was still wrapping up business in Cartagena. At the news conference, with Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos at his side, Obama mounted a vigorous defense of his tax proposals.

“I want everybody to remember, I’m going to say this repeatedly: This is not an argument about taking from A to give to B. This is not a redistributionist argument that we’re making. We’re making an argument about how do we grow the economy so that it’s going to be prospering in this competitive 21st century environment,” Obama said.

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UPDATED throughout at 7 p.m. 

ST. CHARLES • The former president of US Fidelis, once one of the nation’s largest sellers of auto service contracts, admitted in court here Thursday that he bilked consumers and looted his own company of millions of dollars.

Darain Atkinson pleaded guilty to state charges of insurance fraud, stealing and unlawful merchandising practices. It was part of a deal negotiated without the knowledge of his co-defendant and brother, Cory Atkinson, the latter’s lawyers said.

After that agreement in St. Charles County Circuit Court was announced, federal prosecutors in St. Louis unsealed an indictment accusing both men of defrauding consumers, failing to pay taxes and using more than $71 million from the company to fund a lavish lifestyle of luxury boats, cars and mansions here and overseas.

Prosecutors recommended a sentence of eight years for Darain Atkinson on the state charges. Sentencing was set for July 16, but won’t happen until after the federal case is resolved, his attorney, Scott Rosenblum, said in court.

Later, Rosenblum said the prison term and any penalty in the federal case likely would run concurrently, resulting in no more than eight years total.

It marked one more step in a dramatic fall for the Atkinsons. Just three years ago, the brothers were self-made millionaires with palatial homes, fleets of exotic cars and more than 1,100 employees working at the Wentzville headquarters of the auto service contract company they founded.

Bill Margulis, one of the lawyers representing Cory Atkinson, the former company vice president, reacted to the plea agreement by saying, “Whatever allegations in there pertain to Cory, Cory denies.” Margulis declined to comment on the tax charges, saying another lawyer was handling those.

Asked about Darain Atkinson’s motivation to plead guilty, Margulis responded, “I can only speculate that he made a decision … that eight years was a lot better than whatever the alternative might be.”

Lawyers on both sides said that Darain Atkinson did not agree to testify against his brother or provide information against him.

Cory Atkinson’s state case is pending, with a trial set for September.

Darain Atkinson has prior convictions — in 1986 for theft, burglary and forgery, and in 1987 for making counterfeit federal reserve notes. Cory Atkinson has a 1987 felony conviction for trespassing.

As part of Thursday’s plea, 11 state charges against Darain Atkinson were dropped.

“He’s done everything he can not only to accept his responsibility, he’s surrendered everything he’s owned to make things good,” said Rosenblum.

Appearing in court in a black suit, blue shirt and striped tie, Darain Atkinson provided polite and brief answers Thursday to questions from Circuit Judge Jon Cunningham and attorneys. He remained free on bail and walked away from the courthouse without speaking to reporters.

The federal indictment makes many of the same allegations outlined in Darain Atkinson’s plea, using similar language.

It also accuses both brothers of failing to declare or pay taxes on more than $40 million received from the company for the tax years 2006 and 2007. On his 2007 tax return, Darain Atkinson reported $73,378 in taxable income when he’d received $8.1 million from Fidelis, the indictment says. That return was the only one for those years on which either brother reported a positive taxable income, it says.

The federal charges also say the brothers’ lavish spending drained an escrow account that was supposed to pay taxes.

Fidelis was a broker for service contracts that promised financial protection for drivers after their vehicles’ original warranties expired. It also sold product warranties, coverage conditioned upon the purchase and use of certain auto additives.

In his plea, Darain Atkins admitted that the profit was often more than $1,200 on a contract typically priced at more than $2,000.

The company used deceptive and misleading direct mail and telemarketing campaigns designed to fool consumers into thinking they were talking to dealers or auto manufacturers, and portrayed service contracts as more comprehensive than they actually were, the plea says.

Unhappy customers canceled, sometimes at a rate as high as 60 percent.

When they did, Darain Atkinson told Fidelis staffers to arbitrarily withhold 10 to 40 percent of their money — and Cory Atkinson knew the full amounts of refunds were not being returned, the plea says.

The Atkinsons funneled millions of dollars into multi-million dollar homes in St. Charles County and elsewhere in Missouri as well as Lake Tahoe and the Cayman Islands.

Although it is not mentioned in the plea, the company paid almost $27 million to buy land and build Darain Atkinson’s Lake Saint Louis home, which featured a observation tower, bowling alley, beauty salon, a two-story walk-in closet, safe rooms, and secret doors and passageways.

Cory Atkinson’s Wentzville manse was valued at $10 million.

The founders’ spending and the customer cancellations put a strain on the company’s cash flow, and Fidelis was forced to rely on cash from new sales, the plea says. The company collapsed in 2009.

Last month, in a proposed settlement filed in bankruptcy court in St. Louis, the company agreed to pay $1.45 million to 556 former employees.

Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster, who represented the state in Thursday’s case, said after the hearing that since the Atkinson indictment in June, his office has received fewer complaints about other vehicle service contract providers.

“I think the indictment of US Fidelis sent a shock wave through this industry,” he said.

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A sexy, award-winning smartphone is going on sale Sunday at half the price of the iPhone, and it’s launching on a blazing fast 4G network.

What’s the catch? Two things: The phone, called the Lumia 900, is made by Nokia — and it’s running Microsoft’s Windows Phone software.

They may be household names, but Microsoft (, Fortune 500) and Nokia () are unproven in the U.S. smartphone space. Nokia hasn’t ever sold a major smartphone in the United States, and it has been almost invisible in the North American market for the past five years.

Meanwhile, Microsoft had a big, expensive, but tepidly received launch of Windows Phone 7 in late 2010. The software giant has actually lost market share since then.

Putting Microsoft and Nokia’s efforts together to create a third major challenger to the iPhone-Android smartphone duopoly is kind of like putting Linux on a Sony () Vaio to take a run at HP (, Fortune 500) and Dell (, Fortune 500). In the United States, Apple (, Fortune 500) and Google (, Fortune 500) control a combined 80% share of the smartphone market, according to comScore. Microsoft has less than 4%.

But if ever there were a time to make a run, it’d probably be now.

The Lumia 900 is a visually dazzling smartphone that’s generating a lot of chatter after it took home the Best of Show award at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Windows Phone has already gone through its first major update to clear away the early bugs and has 77,000 apps in its app store. And Nokia’s phone is compatible with AT&T’s new ultra-fast 4G LTE network, making it the first LTE-capable Windows Phone device.

To top it all off, AT&T (, Fortune 500) is selling the Lumia 900 for just $100.

The iPhone is a nightmare for carriers

"We have a great amount of consumer buzz, so we feel good about our ability to take off in a really big way," said Chris Weber, president of Nokia’s North American business. "But we’ve got to have a great device that is super compelling to do that. We think we have that."

As Microsoft’s Aaron Woodman, the company’s Windows Phone director, put it: "There is an enormous amount of momentum, and now is the time to strike."

The Lumia 900 is not the first Nokia Windows Phone device to launch in the United States no fax payday advance. That was the Lumia 710, an entry-level device that went on sale on T-Mobile’s network in January.

But Nokia’s new Lumia 900 device is the first Windows Phone that stacks up well against the big boys — the iPhones and the Samsung Galaxies of the smartphone world. Nokia’s expensive ad campaign for the phone goes for the jugular, attacking the iPhone’s Antennagate issue, as well as rival smartphones’ fragile cases and poor screen performance in sunlight.

The jabs play to Nokia’s strengths. Cased in a polycarbonate shell, the Lumia 900 lacks any paint — it is blue, black, or white all the way through, making the device appear scratch- and crack-resistant. It feels solid, though at 5.6 ounces it’s a bit on the heavy side. The device’s large, eye-popping screen performs quite well outdoors.

But is that enough to persuade former Android and iPhone customers to switch?

Microsoft thinks they’re ready.

"There is a sense of fatigue with Android, which really makes you do a lot of work — that’s true for Apple as well," Woodman said. "Since we arrived late to the game, that allowed us to solve a lot of problems that people were having with their smartphones."

Microsoft thinks sales will really take off after Windows 8 launches later this year. The company’s reimagined Windows for PCs will look and feel a whole lot like Windows Phone.

Windows 8: It’s a game changer

"A successful Windows 8 and a congruent platform across phone, tablet, PC, TV and cloud is the vision they are going for," said Al Hilwa, analyst at IDC. "That is going to take a few years to execute on."

That means Microsoft will have to be patient — but it’s always been willing to play the long game. It plowed billions into its Xbox division, which was unprofitable for years, and continues to lose billions each year on Bing and its online services.

"The critical question is, ‘Will they be able to ride out short-term failures and moderate successes with the aim of creating a long term viable third ecosystem?’" said Jagdish Rebello, director at IHS iSuppli. "I believe that the answer is yes."  

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