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Nokia Rolls Out New Ammunition

June 14, 2004


Nokia announced the forthcoming release of five new phone models at its annual press event in Helsinki, Finland last weekend. The announcement came on the heels of first-quarter market results that were less than favorable for the company. Although Nokia handset sales increased worldwide, its overall market share decreased in Western Europe and North America, according to Gartner. The decrease, says Bob Woods, principal analyst for mobile terminals research at Gartner, is in response to Nokia's weak product portfolio, causing carriers to choose its competitors' handsets.

The five new phones will fill in some key areas for Nokia: Three of them are clamshell, or flip-phone, models, which the company has not previously sold. Nokia has also boosted its midrange product line and added color displays to entry-level products. Although these are not mind-blowing additions, they are essential for keeping customers and carriers happy and keeping the company in the race.

The Nokia 6630 is the first 3G SmartPhone phone by Nokia, and the world's first phone capable of running 3G, EDGE, and 2G networks. This candy bar-shaped phone runs on Series 60 (Symbian) OS and has a 1.2 megapixel camera, with 1 to 6x digital zoom for both photos and video. The 74MB internal memory and built-in MMC should make it easy to store all the multimedia content. And you'll be able to stream video and play your MP3s. It will be available in the fall.

The Nokia 6260 is a clamshell phone that twists. This triband SmartPhone has push-to-talk, e-mail, Bluetooth, and a VGA camera. Aimed at the mobile professional, this phone is supposed to ship this summer.

The Nokia 6170 is a stylish, midrange clam-shell phone made with stainless steel. It has a bright internal display, four-color outer display, VGA camera, and a slew of messaging choices, like push-to-talk, e-mail, instant messaging, and MMS. It is expected to ship in the fall.

The Nokia 2650 and the Nokia 2600 (aimed business users) are the company's first en-try-level phones to feature color displays. Both phones are expected to ship in the summer.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1612296,00.asp