LONDON--Scrambling to catch U.S. and Asian rivals in the growing global smartphone market, Finnish mobile device-maker Nokia Corp. Tuesday launched another addition to its Lumia Windows phone lineup, emphasizing high-end camera features, wireless charging and use of lightweight components.

Nokia's Lumia 925, slated to go on sale in Europe and China next month, debuted at a London news conference after months of hype about the size, weight and features of a new Nokia Lumia device. The phone, which employs Microsoft Corp.'s (MSFT) Windows software, will come with a 469 euro ($609) price tag in Europe and be available through Vodafone Group PLC (VOD.LN) in Europe, China Mobile, China Unicom and T-Mobile Inc. Pricing for non-Europe markets wasn't available.

The announcement follows two phone debuts last week--the Asha 501 for emerging markets like India and the Lumia 928 for U.S. buyers. Nokia is racing to keep pace with more popular offerings from Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd (005930.SE) and Apple Inc. (AAPL).

During the news conference, Nokia executives said "we push camera technology like crazy" after showing off a device with an additional lens designed to better capture natural light and a so-called Smart Camera feature that captures multiple images at once. Executives also pointed out the use of aluminum in the device's construction, which will help lower its weight.

Nokia's launch comes the same day as a report showed that appetite for basic mobile phones fell during the first three months of 2013, and sales of smartphones rose by 43% compared with the first quarter a year ago, now representing essentially half of the global handset market.

The report--by research firm Gartner Inc.--showed that 210 million smartphones were sold in the first quarter as demand for devices like Samsung's Galaxy S 4 and Apple's iPhone continued to grow. Sales of so-called feature phones, meanwhile, slipped 21% to 216 million, with soggy demand for low-end devices hurting a range of companies relying on sales of no-frills feature phones handsets, including Nokia. Gartner bases its report on sales to consumers, unlike some others that monitor sales to retail channels.

The rapid growth in the smartphone market during the initial months of 2013--fueled by demand in Asia--indicates sales of more sophisticated devices built around open operating systems, such as Google Inc.'s (GOOG) Android platform, will soon represent the bulk of industry sales. During the first quarter, 49.3% of device sales were smartphones, up from 34.8% a year ago and 44% in the fourth quarter.

"Consumers in the Asia-Pacific who have used feature phones are now switching to smartphones, and that is driving the growth," Gartner principal research analyst Anshul Gupta said in an interview.

The move to smartphones is taking place as the global handset market appeared stagnant. In total, global handset sales rose 0.7% in the first quarter from a year earlier, with Asian demand offsetting weakness in other regions.

"Local Asian brands like India's Micromax have increased their capabilities significantly and make quality smartphones selling at close to $80," Mr. Gupta said. "They have all the basic features such as the Android operating system, dual SIM cards and a large display, so those who have used $60-$70 feature phones are now really moving on."

Among the big global vendors, South Korea's Samsung kept the top spot as its share of the world-wide mobile phone market grew to 23.6% in the first quarter from 21.1% a year earlier. Nokia remained second, though its market share dropped to 14.8% from 19.7%, while Apple closed the gap a bit with a market share gain to 9% from 7.8%.

Gartner's data mirrors Nokia's first-quarter report last month, where the ailing company--once the world's dominant handset maker--posted a 21% decline in sales of basic mobile phones such as the Asha line. Sales of its Microsoft Windows-based Lumia smartphones, launched in an effort to fight back against Samsung and Apple in the high end, grew firmly but still made up just a fraction of its total shipments.

"Nokia is significantly hit by the decline in feature phones," Mr. Gupta said Tuesday. "Samsung has been aggressive in the smartphone market so its smartphone sales growth has compensated for its falling sales of feature phones. That's not the case for Nokia because its smartphone sales are growing only marginally."

Contact Juhana Rossi and Gustav Sandstrom at juhana.rossi@wsj.com and gustav.sandstrom@dowjones.com

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