The world's largest mobile phone maker, Nokia, launched three new third generation (3G) phones on Thursday including one aimed at winning customers on new high-speed networks in the Americas.
The firm also unveiled a mid-priced phone with a high-resolution camera and a music player, which it said it hoped would be the world's best-selling 3G handset next year.
Nokia lost market share in the Americas during the third quarter, compared to the previous three months, and has said it wants to regain ground there with an improved handset line-up.
The Finnish firm's new 3G slider phone for the Americas has a 1-megapixel camera and digital music player. It said the 6282 would be available during the first quarter of 2006 in markets offering 1900 MHz UMTS services.
The UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) networks allow phone users to play video as well as download games and music.
Nokia gave no pricing details for the phone, which it unveiled on a day of presentations to investors in New York.
Kai Oistamo, head of Nokia's Mobile Phones division, said the company had strong expectations for the W-CDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access) 3G system in the Americas.
"It clearly looks like it's going to be rolled out in a mass commercial way," Oistamo said.
He declined to say which operators might offer the 6282 handset, but the number 1 U.S. mobile service, Cingular, is the first operator in that market to say it will launch a W-CDMA network. Cingular is a joint venture of BellSouth Corp. and AT&T Inc..
Nokia trails U.S.-based rival Motorola and South Korea's LG Electronics and Samsung Electronics in North America.
Nokia also unveiled the 6233, a stainless steel 3G cameraphone which also has a digital music player. It will start shipping in the second quarter of 2006 and is expected to retail for about 325 euros ($383) before taxes and subsidies.
Oistamo said the company had high hopes for the model.
"I strongly believe this is going to be the most successful 3G phone sold in the world next year," he said.
Nokia added to its line-up the 6234, a model it will offer only to customers of Vodafone, the world's biggest mobile operator.
It gave no pricing details for the 6234, which has a 2-megapixel camera, color screen and digital music player and will go on sale in the first quarter of 2006.
