They’re both household names, but for years, tech giants Microsoft and Nokia have struggled to gain a foothold in the smartphone market. But that might soon change with an award-winning new phone that’s half the price of an iPhone and is launching on the super-fast 4G LTE network.The new Lumia 900 went on sale Easter Sunday and it’s off to a strong start — at least it is on Amazon anyway. Both the black and blue models rank number one and two, respectively, on the online retailer’s website — outselling the Droid Razr Maxx by Motorola and the Samsung Galaxy Nexus. Industry watchers say that’s a good early indicator for a phone that has a lot riding on it.The Lumia 900 has been called “sexy” and “visually dazzling” by tech bloggers and has been the subject of a lot of chatter since it took home the Best of Show award at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Windows Phone has already gone through its first major update to clear away some early bugs and has 77,000 apps in its app store. And to top it all off — AT&T is selling the Lumia for just $100.Nokia made the Lumia’s hardware and Microsoft made its software, Windows Phone 7. Microsoft is looking for the Lumia 900 to make Windows Phone mainstream and Nokia sees the phone as its ticket into the US Market with AT&T promising a massive marketing campaign for the phone.Nokia has never sold a major smartphone in the US and has been nearly invisible in the North American market for the last five years. And Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 which launched in 2010 received a lukewarm response.With Apple and Google controlling a combined 80 percent share of the smartphone market (according to comScore) and Microsoft with only four percent, the company has its work cut out for it. But the company thinks sales will really take off later this year when Windows 8 launches — an operating system they hope will be a congruent platform across phone, tablet, PC and TV.