Nokia is reportedly considering a new strategy to drum up excitement for its upcoming Windows-based smartphones.

Windows Phone 8 smartphones will likely have plenty of competition from a new iPhone and Android 4.1 Jelly Bean-based devices, so Nokia is reportedly considering a new strategy to drum up excitement for its upcoming Windows-based smartphones.

According to the Financial Times, Nokia is negotiating with European operators to offer an exclusive opportunity to carry Nokia-branded, Windows Phone 8-based devices.

What that means is that rather than offering up its device to as many carriers as possible, Nokia will take a more Apple-esque approach and cozy up to one or two carriers.

Companies already in talks with Nokia include France Telecom and Deutsche Telekom, the Financial Times reported Sunday. No final deals have been made.

Nokia spokesman Keith Nowak declined to comment on the rumor, saying only that the company has an "ongoing dialog" with its operator customers around the world. However, he said, those discussions remain confidential.

A source told the Financial Times that Nokia's new relationships would also offer service providers a financial stake in the phones' success, which Nokia hopes will provide an incentive for the carriers to push Windows Phone device at the retail level. In June 2011, and found that there wasn't much enthusiasm from carriers or from their sales people to push the platform.

Many European operators are looking to turn the Windows phone into a credible third choice behind Apple's iPhone and Samsung's Android lineup, both of which in the first quarter of 2012. Nokia will have to make a hard sell to catch up to its competitors, ABI Research said last month.

"At this point in the year, Nokia will have to grow its Windows Phone business 5,000 percent in 2012 just to offset its declines in Symbian shipments," Michael Morgan, senior analyst for ABI devices, applications, and content, said in June.

In the U.S., Nokia offers the Lumia 900 exclusively on AT&T. Last week, from $99 to $49.99, a move the company said is "normal" for the three-month-old product.