Nokia will fight its declining market share with a new range of handsets, including new models of "clamshell" and mid-range phones, areas in which the company has been weak, according to analysts.
Among five phones launched yesterday in Helsinki were a swivel-screen 3G handset aimed at mid-market users that Nokia claims is the smallest 3G handset on the market, a wireless keyboard for Nokia internet-enabled smartphones, and phones with higher-quality megapixel cameras.
"I think the product portfolio, our ability to execute, and our relationship with the customer give us a lot of confidence to get back on track," said Mr Jorma Ollila, Nokia chairman and chief executive.
Nokia, which has long held a goal of having 40 per cent global market share in mobiles, has recently watched those prospects slump, with market share declining as low as 28.9 per cent, after a high of 35 per cent, according to industry analysts Gartner.
With a reputation for leading innovation in the handset market, Nokia last year failed to see and respond to consumer enthusiasm for folding "clamshell" phones.
Critics also noted that the company lacked an appealing range of offerings in mid-range phones at a time when consumers were happy to trade up on their existing handsets.
The company had also bet on greater demand for its N-Gage combination phone and gaming platform.
While the handsets looked attractive, gamers complained controls were awkward and too few games were on offer.
Nokia said it would be offering a revamped N-Gage handset and would double the available games to 40 by Christmas.
The company is also putting 1.3 million megapixel cameras into new models, putting camera phone image quality on par with entry-level digital cameras.
Mr Ollila was cautiously optimistic, noting that growth in global subscribers is pushing up company predictions to 600 million handset sales this year.
The company also believes the global market of 1.5 billion subscribers will hit the 2 billion mark by 2007, in half the time it took to reach the first billion mobile users.
New markets such as China, South America and India are central to this growth, he said.
However, handsets make up only part of the picture at Nokia, with network solutions and services major growth areas for the company.
And even with its pruned market share, Nokia still commands twice the market of its nearest rival, Motorola.
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