AT&T's influence on Nokia sales could be significant. In a recent interview with , Nokia executive vice president of devices Kai Oistamo said that working closely with U.S. carriers is what will make the difference in sales in the U.S. "We are already seeing the first fruits," he said.

But Ryan and three other analysts said Nokia still faces an uphill battle in the U.S. market. "The competitive challenges for Nokia are not small," Ryan said. "It is not going to be easy."

Nokia's poor showing in the U.S. may mostly be traced to having few phones to sell with CDMA carriers Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel Inc., the analysts said. AT&T, however, provides a GSM network, the standard that predominates in the rest of the world.

A Nokia spokeswoman noted that Verizon sells the company's 7205 Intrigue, which is equipped with a camera and other features, for use over the CDMA network for $129. However, analysts said CDMA is still an exception for Nokia.

Another reason is that Nokia devices run on the Symbian operating system, which is well-respected, but clearly a stranger to U.S. enterprise IT shops, where Research In Motion Ltd.'s BlackBerries and devices using Microsoft Corp.'s Windows Mobile operating system predominate.