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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