Confident Nokia Unveils Five New Phones

Monday, June 14th 2004, 9:56 am

By: News On 6

HELSINKI, Finland (AP) _ Nokia Corp. unveiled five new phone models Monday, saying it was confident it could regain recently lost ground in the mobile phone market and reach 40 percent of the global market share.

Chief Executive Jorma Ollila said the Finnish company's market share had fallen to 32 percent, losing ground to competitors, including Motorola Inc., Samsung and Sony Ericsson.

A report by market researcher Gartner Inc., however, calculated Nokia's market share even lower _ at 28.9 percent in the first quarter of 2004, down from 34.6 percent during the same period last year.

Launching five new mid- to high-market phones, Ollila said Nokia was confident it could reach its 40 percent target, but did not say how long it would take. He declined to give details of the company's 2004 forecast.

He said the company expects to sell 600 million phones this year, one-third of them camera-phone models, which are expected to become more popular as the prices come down.

Following Monday's announcement, Nokia shares fell 2 percent to 11.69 euros ($4.42) in trading on the Helsinki Stock Exchange.

Nokia's news conference in Helsinki was connected to another in Singapore, where Nokia unveiled the five new phone models, including what Nokia says is the world's smallest 3G, or third-generation, phone _ the 6630.

The 6630 _ just 4.5 ounces _ features a camera, an MP3 player and will support broadband Internet transmission 40 times the speed of second-generation cell phone technology, Nokia said. It will be available the last quarter of 2004 and cost an estimated $600, the company said.

The new models also featured clamshell phones, a new look for Nokia's portfolio but also one competitors and consumers have already embraced.

Nokia plans to roll out 35 new products this year in an effort to fill gaps in the market.

The company also recently slashed prices for several models, following the lead of competitors whose phones have consistently been cheaper than Nokia's. Ollila said the new pricing would not significantly affect the company's margins.

Nokia remains the market leader for handsets, but earlier this month analysts said it was losing ground. U.S.-based Motorola has 16 percent of the market, and South Korea's Samsung has 13 percent.

Nokia, based in Espoo just outside the Finnish capital, has a market capitalization of 54.4 billion euros ($65.3 billion) with sales in 130 countries with 53,000 employees.