Daily Video: Microsoft Reportedly Preparing Premium Lumia Smartphones

Today’s topics include new higher-end Lumia smartphone offerings from Microsoft, an effort from T-Mobile to lure Verizon customers, the stirrings of a storage price war at Dell, and a collaboration between Facebook and IBM Commerce.

Microsoft appears to be getting back into the higher-end smartphone market based on rumors that two new Lumia handsets are coming later in 2015 equipped with larger screens, six- or eight-core processors and other premium features.

The premium Lumia smartphones, code-named the Cityman and the Talkman, will include 5.7-inch and 5.2- inch QHD displays, respectively, as well as 64-bit Qualcomm processors. Both smartphones are expected to debut in the second half of 2015, after Microsoft releases Windows 10.

T-Mobile is trying to expand its customer base by offering existing Verizon customers a special two-week free trial to use T-Mobile’s services and phones as part of the company’s new “Never Settle … for Verizon” promotion.

The offer runs from May 13 through May 31. Under the Never Settle Trial promotion, Verizon customers can have their mobile phone number ported temporarily to a new T-Mobile smartphone.

They can even keep their old Verizon phone during the trial period, just in case they want to go back to Verizon, according to T-Mobile. When the free trial is over, customers can choose to stay with T-Mobile or return to Verizon.

Dell appears to be initiating a price war of sorts with its latest entry-level storage system. Dell Storage’s SCv2000 storage area network, launched on May 6 and made available immediately, is a relatively full-featured starter enterprise system that had been tagged at $14,000 per array, a price point that is unheard of in the IT business. Then, a few days ago, the company trimmed the price again for a single array to $8,800.

Facebook and IBM Commerce announced that they will collaborate to provide the world’s leading brands with tailored marketing capabilities designed to reach the right people at the right time with the right message.

The companies said IBM’s marketing cloud clients can now utilize Facebook’s ad capabilities such as Custom Audiences combined with IBM’s deep analytics and design features, to create marketing experiences for their customers across applications, devices and time.