Nokia unveils five new handsets

Singapore, June 19: Finland's Nokia Oyj, the world's largest cellphone maker, on Monday unveiled five new mobile handsets, including a 3G camera phone and 2 CDMA phones, that should hit retail shelves this year.

Nokia said the 3G phone, the 6151, comes with a 1.3 megapixel camera and is expected to retail in the July-September quarter for 240 euros (3), excluding subsidies and taxes, making it Nokia's cheapest 3G model.

The CDMA phones, the 6275 and 2875 models, come with 2-megapixel and 1.3-megapixel cameras respectively and should reach stores in the fourth quarter. The entry-level 1110i phone is set to sell for 45 euros, excluding taxes and subsidies, starting from the third quarter, while the mid-range 6080 camera phone is set to retail for 180 euros from the fourth quarter.

Including the new phones, which are all candy bar-shaped, Nokia has unveiled 23 new models this year. In the last few years, it has come out with roughly 40 new phones annually. Nokia unveiled the new models at Nokia Connection, its annual event held in Singapore for operators, business partners and industry analysts to showcase new products and services.

Nokia also said it extended a 5-year services deal with India's Hutchison Essar Ltd., the Indian wireless operation of Hong Kong's Hutchison Telecommunications International Ltd. .

It will take over 200 staff and operations in 10 new areas. This means Nokia will supply equipment and manage the networks for 19 of 23 areas for Hutchison Essar.To date, Nokia has 39 managed services contracts in 30 countries.

Services represented over 30 percent of Nokia Networks' 2005 revenues of 6.6 billion euros, and the firm expects revenue from services to grow to 40 percent this year.

Its managed services operations will also be led globally from India from July, Nokia added. The Finnish company also launched a 3G base station that allows operators to easily build 3G and high-speed packet access coverage for indoor hot-spots. It will also supply high-speed downlink packet access (HSDPA) -- an upgraded version of 3G technology -- for Smart Communications Inc., the cellular unit of Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) , the country's largest telecoms operator.

The solution will allow Smart to operate its network more cost-efficiently and offer customers data download rates of up to four times that of current 3G speeds.

Nokia's January-March earnings and sales were well above all expectations, boosted by strong growth in the phone market. The firm, which sells more than one in three of all mobiles, increased its market share, but rival Motorola Inc. reported even faster sales growth, boosted by the ultra-thin clamshell RAZR model.

In the first quarter, Nokia had a global market share of 32.8 percent, compared with second-ranked Motorola with 20.1 percent, according to data from research outfit Strategy Analytics.

Reuters