Nokia, the world's leading mobile phone maker, unveiled Wednesday three new smartphones as the Finnish firm tries to claw back market share from Apple's popular iPhone and RiM's Blackberry. The three new Nokia phones, two of which feature touch screens, are scheduled to be in stores during the fourth quarter of 2009 as Nokia increasingly focuses on applications and services. Nokia is the world's largest maker of smartphones but its product line has been seen as ageing as Canada's RiM and Apple have snatched market share with more advanced models. The new Nokia N97 mini will have a touch display and will feature the Lifecasting with Ovi application, enabling users to update their account on the Facebook social networking site with their cell phone. In recent weeks Nokia has also launched a mini laptop “Booklet 3G” and the N900 smartphone. The announcements are part of Nokia's attempt to branch out into new markets, such as wireless online services. The company said it made a deal with Facebook, the wildly popular social networking site, that will let users of some its handsets update their location and status directly to the site through a Nokia Ovi account. Nokia offered more details about its new laptop, dubbed the Nokia Booklet 3G, which will ship in the fourth quarter of 2009 with Windows 7. It expects the Booklet 3G to be distributed by cell phone providers. Made of aluminum, it sports a 10-inch (25-centimeter) screen, weighs 2.8 pounds (1.3 kilograms) and boasts an Intel Atom 1.6 ghz chip, along with a gigabyte of memory. It will have a third-generation hot swappable SIM card to access cellular networks. Unlike most netbooks, Nokia's Booklet will have a built-in GPS navigation chip coupled to Nokia's Ovi Maps software. Nokia also unveiled a pair of new music phones, the X6 and X3. The X6 features 32 gigabytes of memory, can play up to 35 hours of music and has a 3.2-inch touch-screen. The X3 is a more compact version that features direct access to Nokia's music store and features a built-in FM radio and 3.2 megapixel camera. Both devices are set to ship during the fourth quarter of 2009. Analysts said that while big scale was to Nokia's benefit, it had its disadvantages too. “Nokia has to think about large volumes and it cannot make changes that quickly. And its Symbian S60 (smartphone) user interface is not very modern,” Pohjola Bank analyst Hannu Rauhala said. Schroeder also criticised the Symbian user interface as outdated and complex and said he considered the N900 smartphone, running the new Linux Maemo platform, the most interesting of Nokia's new products.
