Nokia unveils Lumia 822 smartphone in US, exclusive on Verizon for $99

Verizon Wireless, the largest cellphone carrier in the U.S., on Monday said that it will sell a Nokia phone for the first time in years, lending support to the embattled Finnish company's turnaround effort.

Verizon says it will sell the Lumia 822, an exclusive model that's part of Nokia's lineup of smartphones based on Microsoft's Windows software, for $100 with a two-year contract. It will be in stores by Thanksgiving.

Verizon rivals AT&T and T-Mobile USA started selling Lumia phones earlier this year, and will join Verizon in launching new phones with Windows Phone 8, an updated operating system. Microsoft held a launch event for Windows Phone 8 in San Francisco on Monday, but the first phones are some weeks away from U.S. store shelves.

Even though it was, until recently, the world's largest maker of phones, Nokia has been largely absent from the U.S. market for many years. Its early smartphones never caught on in the country, and it was virtually shut out once the iPhone launched in 2007.

In addition to Nokia, Verizon will be selling Windows Phones from Samsung Electronics and HTC.