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Nokia's new Lumia 800 AP Photo/Sang Tan

Nokia unveils new smartphone in battle against iPhone and Android

The company is fighting to stop shedding market share to its rivals in the highly competitive smartphone market.

NOKIA HAS FINALLY unveiled its long-awaited Windows smartphone in a bid to win back market share lost to the dominant iPhone and Android-driven models.

But some analysts say it may be too little, too late, for the world’s top mobile phone maker.

With price tags of €420 and €270, the Lumia 800 and 710 are based on Microsoft’s Windows 7 software and come eight months after Nokia and the computing giant said they were hitching up.

“Lumia is reasonably good … but it’s not an iPhone killer or a Samsung killer,” Neil Mawston from Strategy Analytics said. “But where Nokia does stand out is on their price — it looks like they are going to be very competitive.”

Lumia 800, with Carl Zeiss optics and 16GB of internal memory, will be available in selected European countries in November, including France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain and Britain. It will be sold in Hong Kong, India, Russia, Singapore and Taiwan before the year-end.

Lumia 710, with a 1.4 GHz processor, navigational applications and Nokia Music — a free, mobile music-streaming app — will first be available in Hong Kong, India, Russia, Singapore and Taiwan toward the end of the year.

Smartphone trouble

Nokia, which claims 1.3 billion daily users, has been the world’s biggest handset maker since 1998, selling 432 million devices last year — more than its three closest rivals combined. But after reaching its announced global goal of 40 percent market share in 2008, it has struggled against rivals making cheaper handsets in Asia, and its share has shrunk to 24 percent earlier this year.

Worse still, Nokia’s sales in the more lucrative smartphone market crashed 39 percent in the third quarter as it continued to be squeezed in the low end by Asian manufacturers like ZTE and in the high end by the iPhone, Research in Motion’s Blackberry, Korea’s Samsung Electronics and Taiwan-based HTC Corp.

However, Elop described the Lumia phones as a “new dawn” for Nokia. “Lumia is light… Lumia is the first real Windows Phone,” Elop declared to the London audience.

Ovum analyst Nick Dillon said the success of the new Windows devices will be critical.

“The challenges which Nokia faces are significant — many potential Windows Phone customers will have already bought an Android or iPhone and will have some form of attachment to those platforms,” Dillon said. “Nokia will have a challenge to convince them to switch to what is a largely unknown, and therefore risky, alternative.”

New Nokia smartphone
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  • New Nokia smartphone

    The Lumia 800 on display (AP Photo/Sang Tan)
  • New Nokia smartphone

    A visitor looks at a new Nokia Lumia 710 (AP Photo/Sang Tan)
  • New Nokia smartphone

    The Lumia 800 (AP Photo/Sang Tan)
  • New Nokia smartphone

    A Nokia employee demonstrates the Lumia 800 (AP Photo/Sang Tan)
  • New Nokia smartphone

    The Nokia Lumia 800 on display in London (AP Photo/Sang Tan)
  • New Nokia smartphone

    President and CEO of Nokia, Stephen Elop shows off the Lumia 800 (AP Photo/Sang Tan)

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    Mute winston smith
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    Dec 19th 2016, 3:13 PM

    Where did this poll sprout from?

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    Mute Lily Martin
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    Dec 19th 2016, 4:35 PM

    Brussels

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    Mute windbag
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    Dec 19th 2016, 1:18 PM

    Yes … mixed with bacon bits and cooked in oven….mmmmm

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    Mute Paul Mc
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    Dec 19th 2016, 1:31 PM

    I like an odd sprout or two and am partial to a gallon or two of bud.

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    Mute Catherine M
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    Dec 19th 2016, 2:59 PM

    @windbag: Definitely! Crispy bacon bits, a bit of butter to give them that warm texture, salt/pepper – noice!

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    Mute Sam Glynn
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    Dec 19th 2016, 4:31 PM

    And pine nuts…..yum yum

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    Mute peter crew
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    Dec 19th 2016, 5:40 PM

    Fries with onion and bacon in soy sauce

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    Dec 20th 2016, 6:48 AM
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    Mute Michael Kelly
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    Dec 19th 2016, 5:46 PM

    I’d eat a Turkey made of sprouts…

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    Mute Rita Mcgettigan
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    Dec 19th 2016, 7:49 PM

    I love sprouts.

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    Mute Michael Kelly
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    Dec 19th 2016, 5:57 PM

    I’d eat button sprouts EVERY day if l could, but on the contrary, l can’t bear to watch my 12 year old daughter’s face when l reply to her: “whats for dinner” ? Question…l suppose it’s an aquired taste..

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    Mute Neal, not Neil.
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    Dec 20th 2016, 8:54 AM

    You’re not supposed to serve it as the main element of the dinner.

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    Mute Jlocoroco
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    Dec 19th 2016, 11:50 PM

    cover them in chocolate and save them for the kids on halloween

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    Mute Michael Clinton
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    Dec 19th 2016, 7:19 PM

    Hovercraft fuel, I love ‘em. I actually love the stalk as well , boiled in the water off the bacon.. yummmm

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    Mute Eleanor Hegarty
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    Dec 20th 2016, 12:11 AM

    Has to be the bacon/ham water

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    Mute Michael Clinton
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    Dec 20th 2016, 2:30 AM

    @ Elanor, serious respect.

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    Mute Dubabroad
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    Dec 20th 2016, 1:13 AM

    Done with lots of bacon bits

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    Mute George McCarthy
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    Dec 19th 2016, 6:36 PM

    George Say”s – more “Journal” nonsense.

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    Mute Tony Dunne
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    Dec 20th 2016, 9:51 AM

    Love them shredded and fried with smoked bacon butter black pepper and nutmeg

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