Nokia, the world's largest mobile phone maker, rolled out Tuesday two new phones -- a clamshell and a personal digital assistant (PDA) -- to fill gaps in its product line where rivals have grabbed market share.
Analysts have said that the absence from Nokia's range of a clamshell phone, popular in Asia and China, had cost the company dearly because key markets had been left to rivals Motorola and Samsung, which together dominate this segment.
"It's needed, it's a long-awaited product, and we should probably expect similar, more lower-end, products soon," Mika Paloranta, analyst with investment bank Carnegie, told reporters.
"Probably Nokia could have gained a market-leading position in China if it had a reasonable priced clamshell product on the market a year ago," he added.
The 7200 clamshell model, retailing for about US$526 when it hits the shops during the second quarter of next year, targets the high-end of the mobile phone market.
The clamshell, which folds shut on itself, includes a color screen, camera and built-in radio, Nokia said at its annual Mobile Internet Conference, held this year at the French Mediterranean resort.
The market leader in China is US-based Motorola with just over 20 percent of mobile phone sales, many of them clamshell models, while Nokia is trailing behind by a few percentage points, according to statistics.
On Tuesday, with the new model, Nokia finally struck back, analysts noted.
"Just to be able to stay competitive, they needed to have one, but it should help them in terms of market share in the future," said Karri Rinta, an analyst at Evli Bank.
The fact is, analysts noted, increased competition from rivals Samsung and Sony-Ericsson on the European market, which both have introduced a series of new models here, basically left Nokia with no choice but to launch similar models.
"It's a tough battle, it's not as easy as it used to be for Nokia," Rinta noted.
"They launched it quite late, and only when Samsung was making inroads in Europe with their clamshell models, and even Finnish retailers were starting to advertise them," Rinta noted.
In Finland, Nokia holds nearly 95 percent of the market, while in Europe it hovers around 50 percent, according to statistics.
On Tuesday Nokia also took a stab at the handheld computer, or personal digital assistant (PDA) segment as well, with the introduction of its boomerang-shaped and consumer-orientated 7700 handset.
Earlier Nokia models bridging the gap between mobile phones and handheld computers have been its Communicator series, rather big and heavy owing to their miniature fold-out keyboard.
"This is basically a PDA, but a different type, more targeted for media use," Paloranta noted.
"We can expect more launches building on the same platform," he pointed out.
These are likely to target more the traditional PDA market and be part of Nokia's new strategy to provide mobile terminals for business users such as travelling salespeople and real estate agents, analysts noted.
While it has regular PDA features such as a large colour touch screen, on-screen keyboard, handwriting recognition, e-mail and Internet surfing, it also packs a radio, and audio and video Internet streaming capabilities.
In addition the 7700, expected to sell for around 500 euros when it goes on sale in the first half of 2004, also has tri-band capability, enabling it to be used in Asia, Europe and most of North America.
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