Ironically, this all means that the USA is officially getting the 808 before the UK. Given the reverse situation a few years ago, who'd have thought we'd see the day?
Update. We now have the official announcement, via Nokia Conversations:
Nokia is responding to consumer interest and is working together with Amazon.com to launch the Nokia 808 PureView smartphone in the United States.
The revolutionary smartphone will be available unlocked and unsubsidized through Amazon.com. U.S. consumers will be able to purchase the Nokia 808 PureView for $699 and use it with a compatible SIM card from AT&T or T-Mobile.
....the Nokia 808 PureView has been met with overwhelming interest from consumers all over the world. Working with Amazon.com, we’re making sure that the interest we’ve seen in the United States is being met. Elements of Nokia’s PureView technology will be integrated into future Windows Phone devices.
Pre-sales start on Amazon.com later this week. USA-based customers can sign up right here to be notified when the Nokia PureView 808 is on sale.
The really odd thing about the announcement is that specific mention is made of only working with T-Mobile at 2G speeds, meaning that the 808's radio has been crippled and is not pentaband, as it is elsewhere in the world. Why would this have been done? Could it be a typo in the original specs that has propagated through the marketing department, or has Nokia intentionally restricted the global 808 PureView to appease their friends at AT&T, whose 3G band is supported.
As I originally suspected in the text above, the whole broo-haha about not being pentaband turned out to be a typo in some marketeers office suite that then got propagated in everyone's stories. Nokia has now confirmed that the full pentaband radio is in the 808 being made available in the USA, so it will work at 3G speeds on T-Mobile after all. Phew.