Nokia Oyj is betting BlackBerry addicts are looking for a new fix.
The world's largest mobile-phone maker is courting customers of Research In Motion Ltd's (RIM) BlackBerry for a combination phone and e-mail device, coming out next quarter.
Nokia is exploiting concern that the service may be shut down in the US amid a patent dispute.
"People are looking for some alternatives," Mary McDowell, a Nokia senior vice president, said in an interview in New York.
The patent lawsuit has "been a cloud over RIM," she said.
Nokia wants to create its own class of fans, similar to the users from Wall Street to Silicon Valley that nicknamed RIM's device the "CrackBerry" and crouch over the pagers on trains and airplanes.
McDowell says the Finland-based company's E61 device will win over some of the 650 million people with business e-mail accounts worldwide, by giving them access to messages on the go.
The opportunity may be better now than ever. Research In Motion, with about 4 million users, may be forced to shut down service in the US, its biggest market.
US District Judge James Spencer in Richmond, Virginia, on Nov. 30 rejected a US$450 million settlement between RIM and NTP Inc, which claims the BlackBerry unfairly uses its patents.
Nokia isn't the only one eying BlackBerry. Motorola is set to unveil a phone with built-in e-mail.
Dubbed the Q, after the so-called Qwerty keyboard such devices feature, the machine is due out in the first quarter.
Illinois-based Motorola expects some business users to buy the Q, spokesman Alan Buddendeck said.
The company also is aiming for "prosumers," a combination of professionals and consumers, or customers who want personal and business e-mail. Those clients would use the device instead of a laptop.
Mobile-phone sales across the industry are set to increase more than 10 percent next year from an estimated 780 million units this year, Nokia said last week.
Nokia, which had about a third of the handset market last quarter, expects to gain share, executives said after introducing three more high-end models that run on faster networks. Nokia has a long-term target of 40 percent market share.
Last month, the company predicted the market for smartphones, the handsets with computer-like functions such as e-mail, will double to 100 million units next year.
Nokia, which runs a version of the BlackBerry software on some of its devices, has a license from Virginia-based NTP to continue running the program on its products should there be an injunction, McDowell said.
She declined to be specific about the details of the license.
"There are no patent issues related to running BlackBerry software," McDowell said.
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