Lumia on AT&T: Bad News for Sprint?

The Lumia, Nokia’s new marquee smartphone, hasn’t yet arrived in the United States, but when it does, it will likely be in partnership with AT&T, which is said to be very interested in the Windows Phone-based device.

And that may be bad news for Sprint, says Kaufman Bros. analyst Ben Abromovitz. Why? Now that Apple has added Sprint as a third iPhone carrier, tying it to an expensive deal, AT&T will use the Lumia to differentiate itself and beat Sprint into submission. Later, Verizon will do the same.

“With Sprint[-Nextel] now the third U.S. carrier with Apple’s iPhone, we believe AT&T and Verizon will increasingly begin focusing their efforts on a Windows phone to offset Apple and target the enterprise market beyond the consumer market,” Abromovitz said in a note to clients. “We believe this poses another potential risk for Sprint and its new long-term commitment to Apple.”

Another potential risk. And the last thing Sprint needs right now, particularly when it has already said it will lose money on the iPhone through fiscal 2015.