Smartphone buyers looking for the Nokia (NYSE:NOK) Lumia 920 are having a hard time finding the device. Most online vendors list the phone as “back-ordered,” and few bricks-and-mortar retailers have any in stock.

The company says it’s struggling to meet demand for the smartphone. While the apparent success of the Lumia 920, which runs Microsoft‘s (NASDAQ:MSFT) Windows operating system, has raised some analysts’ hopes, another analyst says the short supply may be the result of Nokia’s distribution strategy, rather than soaring demand, The New York Times notes.

Tero Kuittinen, who studies the mobile industry, suggests that Nokia planned to distribute the phone in Europe first, leaving a lower supply for the U.S. market. He notes that the phone, which sold out on Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) within 72 hours of launching, has remained back-ordered since Nov. 7. That suggests Nokia may be constricting its supply of Lumia 920s in the U.S. due to low sales expectations.

A Nokia spokesperson told the Times that it wasn’t ready to release any U.S. sales data for the Lumia 920 and declined to comment on supply issues.

The Finnish handset maker has bet heavily on the success of its new Lumia line, hoping to fend off competition from Apple‘s (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPhone and phones running Google‘s (NASDAQ:GOOG) Android, which have taken an enormous bite out of Nokia’s market share.

Nokia shares fell almost 2% in early Friday trading in New York.