The T-Mobile USA exclusive Nokia Lumia 521 is now available direct from the operator's web store for a price of up front payment of $29.99, with 24 subsequent monthly payments of $5. Alternatively the device can be paid for in full at a cost of $149.99. The handset was earlier made available through the Home Shopping Network, Walmart, and Microsoft Stores.

Walmart continues to have the cheapest price at $129.88, but some consumers will prefer to buy direct from the operator. The Lumia 521 appears to be selling well, with limited stock availability at most retailers (e.g. Walmart and HSN are both currently out of stock), echoing strong sales figures for the Lumia 520 in other markets.

The Lumia 521 is a T-Mobile specific variant of the Lumia 520, with support for the WCDMA 1700 (Band IV) and 1900 (Band II) frequencies. Other specifications include a 4.0 inch WVGA (800 x 480) TFT screen, 8GB of internal memory, microSD card support, a dual-core Snapdragon S4 processor running at 1GHz, and a 5 megapixel camera. 

We've previously noted that Windows Phone is arguably stronger at the low end of the market than at the high end of the market, when making a comparison of the relative experiences between competing platforms:

In the low end of the smartphone market the situation is a little different. All devices, by price point necessity, have lower specifications, fewer features, and lower-cost materials. iOS devices are generally not available. Android devices are numerous, and comfortably qualify as the cheapest smartphones available, but can feel under-powered and generally have the biggest cut back on both features, specifications and software experience. Blackberry devices are available, but are running the previous generation of the platform and are generally regarded as out of date. Windows Phone, in the form of the Nokia Lumia 520 / 521, has some of the same hardware cuts as the other devices (e.g. lower quality screen, slower processor), but these seem to have less of an impact than on other platforms, with the Windows Phone 8 software experience being much the same as it is on higher end devices.

Of course there remains a subjective element in any assessment of which smartphone is "best" and any judgement criteria will vary from person to person. Nonetheless, we think Windows Phone, in a comparison with other mobile platform, has a stronger competitive position in the low end than at the high-end. This is best personified by the Nokia Lumia 520, which The Register, in a recent review, aptly described as a credible "alternative to Landfill Android", but can also be applied to the Nokia Lumia 620, and, to a lesser extent the Nokia Lumia 720.

To what degree this is born out in the sales number and whether there is a measurable impact on consumer perceptions remains to be seen. Nonetheless, the broadening of the price points at which Windows Phone devices are available can only help drive awareness and increase the size of the addressable market.