10/15, 9:10am
Nokia's summer hurt by poor phone sales
Nokia on Thursday suffered one of its larger blows in recent years with word of especially poor results during its summer quarter. The company posted a net loss equivalent to $1.36 billion between July and September and almost completely reversed a $1.58 billion profit from a year earlier. Much of the blame was placed directly on a deep, 19.6 percent plunge in its revenue from phone sales compared to a year earlier, even though the number was a slight 5 per cent gain versus the spring.
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09/16, 10:25am
Nokia 5130 XM at T-Mobile
T-Mobile upgraded its budget media phones on Wednesday by bringing in the 5130 XpressMusic. Coming very close to the reference version, the candybar design centers on its dedicated media control strip along the side and its inclusion of a 3.5mm headphone jack. A 2-megapixel camera, FM radio, stereo Bluetooth and EDGE-based Internet access are part of the design.
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09/02, 8:10am
Nokia X6 X3 and N97 mini
Nokia marked the formal start of its own Nokia World show by launching three more phones, two of which are meant to bolster the company's stance in touchscreen phones. The rumored and now confirmed N97 mini is a rare fix for an existing design and shrinks the touchscreen smartphone slightly; it uses a smaller 3.2-inch, 640x360 display (down from 3.5 inches) and drops the dedicated directional pad in favor of arrow keys tucked into the slide-out, tilting QWERTY keyboard. Software also gets an upgrade with support for much more intuitive flick scrolling, more home screen widgets and updated Ovi Maps, though these will reach the full-size N97 in October as a free patch.
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08/26, 8:25am
Nokia Maemo to Beat iPhone
Nokia is planning to dump Symbian for Linux as part of a concerted strategy to beat the iPhone, multiple sources said Wednesday. While the tips echo reports of the N900 using Maemo Linux for its interface instead of Symbian S60, Reuters now hears the shift is part of a larger strategy that will replace Symbian on many if not all high-end Nokia smartphones in the near future. The first fruits of the move are anticipated at next week's Nokia World show.
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08/21, 4:10pm
Nokia 5530 XM pre-orders
Nokia is now offering its entry-level XpressMusic handset, the 5530 XM for pre-orders on its website. Introduced in mid-June, the phone retains the Symbian S60 operating system like the original 5800 XM. It has a 2.9-inch, 640x360 resolution touchscreen display and uses Wi-Fi as well as EDGE for connecting to the Internet instead of a faster 3G network connection to keep its price down. There is also no GPS receiver.
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08/21, 7:40am
Nokia 5800 Nav Edition
Nokia today seized on the the 5800 XpressMusic's relative popularity and launched the 5800 Navigation Edition. The new version appears aimed to counter the rise of iPhone turn-by-turn GPS apps by giving owners unlimited subscriptions to Ovi Maps for both car-based and pedestrian navigation. Accessories in the pack are also intended to get the phone ready for driving with a car charger and a mounting kit.
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08/17, 4:40pm
Nokia handsets spotted
A photo showing a number of upcoming Nokia handsets has reportedly come from a retailer, suggesting these devices are nearly ready for shipping. While no information comes with the image, the D-pad-less N97 mini is clearly visible in the image below the full-size N97, as well as certain other unannounced devices. To the right and in the center of the devices, the chrome-ringed touchscreen device resembles the successor to the 5800 XpressMusic, the 5900 XpressMusic.
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08/14, 3:00pm
Nokia 5900 XM specs
A Friday ElectricPig post has confirmed some previously reported specs for the successor to the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic handset, the 5900 XpressMusic. Other than the higher-resolution 5-megapixel camera (versus 3.2 megapixels), there is also a larger 3.5-inch screen with the same 360x640 resolution and 128MB of RAM, putting it more on par with the higher-end N97.
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07/20, 11:40am
Nokia C X and Booklet
Nokia is registering a number of trademarks that suggest a major effort to expand and relabel its phone lineup, as well as to introduce new types of devices. The company has filed for trademarks on the names Cseries and Xseries that imply two new phone lines. At present, its phones are divided into the Nseries media and Eseries work smartphones as well as its four-digit numerical devices like the 5800 XpressMusic.
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07/16, 8:25am
Nokia Q2 2009 Results
Nokia today reported a severe blow from the world economic collapse both in market share and in its financial health. The company shipped 15.2 percent less phones in its spring quarter than it did a year ago, down to 103.2 million. The amount is a 10.7 percent jump compared to the winter, at the height of the crisis, but was still enough for Nokia's market share to remain almost flat compared to the winter and to have dropped from 40 to 38 percent from year to year, according to its estimates.
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07/06, 10:00am
Nokia Denies Android Plans
Nokia on Monday tried to deflect rumors that it's developing an Android smartphone. A company spokesman said that there is "absolutely no truth" to the claim, which would have a touchscreen device appear in September at Nokia World. The representative maintained the company's official choice of Symbian for all its smartphones.
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06/22, 9:05am
Nokia 5800 XM at Rogers
Rogers this morning became the first major North American carrier to adopt the 5800 XpressMusic. The first touchscreen Nokia phone shows in Canada with native 3G and is very close to the reference Symbian S60 platform with the exception of a new urMusic app for shopping from Rogers' store for music or concert tickets. Rogers allows Nokia Maps to serve as the GPS navigation option rather than offering its own.
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06/15, 8:15am
Nokia 5530 XM and 3710
Just as key to Nokia's phone launches this morning is its first lower-end touchscreen device. The 5530 XpressMusic is still a true smartphone with Symbian S60 and a 2.9-inch, 640x360 touchscreen but makes a number of sacrifices to scale down its price. It limits cellular data to EDGE and relies on Wi-Fi as its fastest connection; it also drops GPS with this goal in mind. A 3.2-megapixel camera stays onboard, as does a bundled 4GB microSDHC card (down from 8GB) for storage.
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06/11, 11:25am
LG Aims for No 2 Spot
LG's mobile chief Skott Ahn today told the press that his company is planning to claim second place in both the overall and smartphone markets by 2012. The Korean company expects its total phone share to remain a flat 10 percent in 2009, or third place behind Nokia and Samsung, but also anticipates moving up much more quickly among the more advanced devices, where it doesn't yet count among the top five. Much of the boost should come from its deal with Microsoft for Windows Mobile phones, but at least one Android phone is due this year.
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06/10, 1:40pm
Immersion joins Symbian
Immersion on Tuesday announced it has joined the Symbian Foundation, giving other members access to the company's TouchSense haptics technology. The TouchSense API is available for free to programmers who are developing applications for the Symbian platform and cellphone makers can separately license Immersion's haptic technology. Haptic feedback such as Immersion's theoretically improve touchscreen interaction by producing confirmation of a virtual button press with vibration and sound.
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05/29, 4:55pm
Rogers to get Nokia 5800
Canadian wireless provider Rogers will soon offer the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic handset, if the attached photo of a billboard advertising the fact is correct. The ad, located at a The Source retail store in Ottawa, is reported to be one of many placed across the provider's locations throughout Canada.
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05/26, 7:30am
Nokia Ovi Store and ATT
After an early opening for some areas, Nokia today formally launched the Ovi Store worldwide. Accessible both through the web and through a downloadable app, the service is Nokia's own contender against the iPhone's App Store and puts both third-party apps, N-Gage games, podcasts and videos in a central location. It's primarily intended for Symbian S60 phones such as the 5800 XpressMusic as well as most recent Eseries and Nseries smartphones, including the imminent N97.
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05/14, 3:35pm
Nokia Multi-Touch Q3 Rumor
Nokia's recently rumored entry into multi-touch phones may come relatively quickly if a slip through Taiwan circuit designers is accurate. They reportedly tell DigiTimes that Nokia has finally settled on Synaptics to provide the circuitry driving at least one phone's touchscreen and "does not rule out" the possibility of the phone supporting multi-touch input, a first for Nokia's handsets. The product would be launched in the summer, though whether it ships at that time or is simply announced isn't apparent.
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05/08, 3:25pm
Nokia 5900 XM Rumor
Nokia's sequel to the 5800 XpressMusic may have already been spotted online if a Chinese gallery proves true. Supposedly called just the 5900 XpressMusic, it would have a slightly larger 3.5-inch touchscreen, a 5-megapixel camera, touch-sensitive hardware buttons and an overall slimmer profile. It would have the same S60 5th Edition operating system as the 5800.
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05/04, 1:30pm
Cincinnati Bell gets 5800
Cincinnati Bell Wireless on Monday announced it is the first US carrier to offer the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic smartphone in the US. Before today, those who wanted the handset in the country had to pay $400 for an unlocked but also unsubsidized device. Otherwise, the smartphone includes its stock 3.2-inch, 360x640 touchscreen, a web browser with Adobe Flash support, an integrated GPS sensor, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.0.
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04/28, 1:00pm
Nokia 5800 Star Trek
Nokia has announced a new movie tie-in edition of its 5800 XpressMusic phone. The Star Trek variant is preloaded with four custom screensavers, as well as three new wallpapers, and eight ringtones based on movie sound effects. Also loaded is a Phazer application, which simulates the series' famous guns.
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04/24, 1:05pm
iPhone at 1 5pc Share
Regardless of the economy, Apple has managed to claim 1.5 percent of the market in the early part of 2009, according to ABI Research data. The California company's 3.79 million iPhones sold in the first quarter were enough to eke out the amount, which gives Apple an extra 0.4 percent of the total market beyond the 1.1 percent it had just at the end of 2008. The expansion comes at the same time as significant shrinks by market leader Nokia, which dropped to 36.2 percent, and struggling mid-range firm Sony Ericsson's fall to just 5.6 percent.
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04/17, 8:10am
Nokia 5800 Capacitive Soon
Nokia may give the 5800 XpressMusic and more of its phones an upgrade to a capacitive touchscreen, tips from Taiwan's phone part makers would claim. Although Nokia built the 5800 around a resistive touchscreen, which requires pressure and is sometimes better-suited to a stylus than finger input, the company has supposedly ordered a switch to capacitive screens with the explicit goal of rivaling the responsiveness of Apple's iPhone and newer Korean phones like the LG Arena or Samsung's i8910 (Omnia HD). About 2 million of the upgraded phones would be shipped between May and June based on these plans.
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04/16, 10:30am
LG Sells 2m Arena in 1 Mth
LG today said it has sold 2 million of the KM900 Arena since it went on sale in the first half of March. The tally includes the 1 million pre-orders leading up to the release and marks LG's fastest-selling phone to date; the original Chocolate music phone took 3 months to reach the 1 million mark.
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04/16, 8:25am
Nokia Q1 2009 Results
Nokia this morning reported major falls in both its financial performance and its phone market share for the quarter. The Finnish cellphone maker's operating profit has dropped from slightly over $2 billion in early 2008 to just $72.4 million in early 2009 based on a significant decrease in sales income, which dropped by 27 percent year-over-year. Much of this is attributed directly to a 19.3 percent plunge in cellphone shipments from 115.5 million phones in the first quarter of 2008 to 93.2 million for the same period this year.
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04/15, 11:05am
Nokia 5800 Surprise
Nokia's 5800 XpressMusic touchscreen phone may become the centerpiece for the company after surprisingly strong sales, according to analyst estimates. Where the company only officially said it had shipped 1 million units between December and January, GC Capital's Tero Kuittinen now determines that Nokia should have sold 2.5 million of the device just in the first three months of 2009, indicating exceptionally strong sales for a single model.
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04/13, 10:20am
Nokia 5530 September Leak
If accurate, a source has Nokia launching its first touchscreen phone below the 5800 XpressMusic. The 5530 as described by DailyMobile would still have the full Symbian S60 operating system but a smaller 2.9-inch display. A 3.2-megapixel camera, FM radio and Wi-Fi are also purportedly queued up, though there is no mention of whether 3G or GPS would also transfer to the new device.
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03/30, 3:20pm
XpressMusic 5800 update
Nokia has launched a firmware update on Monday for its 5800 XpressMusic handset that increases the speed of the user interface and Internet downloads. The free update can be downloaded now and also adds an in-device search function and an automatic application updater that checks Nokia's online app store for updates and downloads them on its own.
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03/11, 7:30am
Nokia 5730 5330 5030 Music
Nokia this morning used an in-house music event to launch three separate media phones, including a pair of firsts. The 5730 XpressMusic is the first media-specific phone from the phone maker to get a slide-out QWERTY keyboard and uses this to bring an added messaging component; like an increasing number of Nokia phones, the 5730 has a newer home screen that shows up to 20 favorite contacts as well as gives quicker access to media playback and apps like Facebook. It also has dedicated music keys usable regardless of whether the slider is open.
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03/09, 4:30pm
Nokia event on Wednesday
Nokia is teasing the public with an advertisement for an event this Wednesday, March 11th, that would possibly see the release of a music phone, with many thinking it could be yet another handset compatible with the company's Comes With Music service. If so, this would be the third such phone, adding to the current 5800 XpressMusic and 5630 XpressMusic, the latter launched less than a month ago. The event will likely consist of a product announcement, followed by two question and answer sessions, happening in the morning and evening online at Nokia Events. No other details are known, including whether this is indeed a new product announcement or a change to the service itself. Many are hoping it will be a long-awaited announcement that the service is finally coming to North America.
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03/05, 9:25am
Nokia fixes 5800 NAM issue
As promised earlier this week, Nokia has reportedly found a fix for the connectivity issues in certain areas affecting its 5800 XpressMusic handset with a new firmware update that is yet to be released. An unnamed source at Nokia tells NokiaBlog that a new round of firmware connects to 3G networks in Chicago and New York without any of the previously-reported problems, which in many cases saw phones in these US cities getting no 3G reception whatsoever.
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03/02, 5:00pm
Nokia 5800 issues update
The recent 3G performance problems with the 5800 XpressMusic have been officially acknowledged by Nokia, and while the company has stopped short of admitting a network-specific problem, it now claims that only handsets in Chicago and New York areas suffer the problems. The handsets were being returned to Nokia's flagship stores in the two cities, with some users reporting a complete lack of signal reception even in areas with a known good connection.
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02/27, 3:45pm
Nokia 5800 US Glitches
Nokia's US launch of the 5800 XpressMusic may have been marred by one if not two significant manufacturing glitches. Multiple reports coming in to BGR report that versions of the company's first touchscreen phone sold at its Chicago and New York flagship stores are being returned in large numbers after some models refuse to get any sort of signal. The issue isn't consistent and only appears to affect the new North America Model (NAM) versions with 3G support for AT&T and Rogers.
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02/25, 4:30pm
Nokia music in Australia
Nokia on Wednesday announced it will launch its Comes With Music service, along with the compatible Nokia 5800 XpressMusic handset, in Australia on March 20th. The handset, Nokia's first touchscreen device, will have access to a library that has more than 4 million tracks. As in other countries, the service will give users the option to download an unlimited amount music to their PC or the 5800 handset for one year and keep what they download, unlike other time-limited or pay-per track services.
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02/25, 1:50pm
Nokia 5800 Xpress NAM
Nokia on Wednesday began selling a North American version 5800 XpressMusic in the US, marking the first time a Nokia touchscreen phone is available in a North America-native version. The new version adds support for 3G data over 850MHz HSPA and lets subscribers to AT&T connect at up to the full 3.6Mbps downstream speed of its network. As an unlocked model, it can also be used with Rogers' 3G service in Canada and supports regular EDGE data on T-Mobile.
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02/19, 2:10pm
Nokia Borrows 636m
Nokia in an unusual move today said it will borrow 500 million Euros ($636 million) from the European Investment Bank to improve its smartphone software. The loan will be stretched out over the course of the next five years and is specifically tailored towards research and development projects due between now and 2011 to render Symbian phones "more competitive." Nokia sees the money as mostly intended for its own, internal work but says the research coming out of the loan will also help the Symbian Foundation and non-Nokia Symbian devices as a result.
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02/13, 7:40am
Nokia CWM New Phones
Nokia on Friday used one of the last days before Mobile World Congress to add multiple new phones to the Comes With Music roster. In addition to existing phones that come with the year-long unlimited music subscription, such as the N96, an introduction of the service into Singapore is also bringing both high- and low-end phones into the mix with the N79, N85, 5800 XpressMusic, 5320 XpressMusic and 5220 XpressMusic all getting the same option. The addition has the same rights as in other countries and lets owners keep any music they've downloaded once the subscription is over.
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02/10, 5:45pm
Nokia 5800 coming to US
The hot-selling Nokia 5800 XpressMusic that sold more than one million examples in the UK in about two months will be coming soon to North America, according to a slip by a reseller. The full touchscreen handset will reportedly be available on February 26th in the US in a version with 3G using HSPA on supporting North American networks. The phone will tentatively cost $399 as an unlocked, unsubsidized device rather than receive a discount through a tie-in with AT&T.
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02/10, 9:00am
Nokia 5630 XpressMusic
Preparing itself in the run-up to next week's Mobile World Congress, Nokia today launched the 5630 XpressMusic. The new mid-range phone in the company's media-focused lineup centers around a rare voice recognition system that will play artists, songs and other music content just through speaking its name. Its visual interface also borrows from the N97's social component by including a new Contacts Bar on the home screen that provides quick access to the recent calls, messages and photos from as many as 20 favorites.
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01/23, 10:50am
Nokia Ships 1m 5800 Phones
Nokia has finished the week by revealing on Friday that it has shipped 1 million copies of its 5800 XpressMusic touchscreen phone. The Symbian S60 device has reached the milestone roughly two months after its November ship date and despite relatively limited availability early in the year that limited the phone to a just a handful of regions that include Hong Kong and Russia. About half of this number was shipped just in December, the company has also mentioned in discussing its financial performance yesterday.
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01/22, 9:25am
Nokia Q4 2008 Results
Nokia today reported fall 2008 financial results that point to a major contraction in its performance, especially in smartphones. The Finnish company's operating profit tumbled from the equivalent of $3.25 billion in late 2007 to just $641.96 million for the last quarter in 2008, or a drop of about 80.3 percent; its net sales have also dropped 19.4 percent to $16.52 billion and reflect a continued drop in the number of phones it sells, which fell about 15 percent year-over-year to 113.4 million devices and 4 percent versus the summer.
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01/20, 2:20pm
Nokia 5730 XpressMusic
A pre-production version of an upcoming Nokia handset, the 5730 XpressMusic, has received a hands-on review recently, revealing many specs on the QWERTY handset. Very similar in design and layout to the Nokia E75, the 5730 will sport a horizontally sliding keyboard with backlit keys. Its display, however, will be smaller, at 2 inches and with a 240x320 resolution. As the name suggests, the handset will have an emphasis on music playback, with dedicated external controls, including a button to engage Nokia's Say and Play voice navigation.
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12/26, 8:10am
Rogers Fido Roadmap 2009
An initial 2009 roadmap for phones at Canadian provider Rogers and its sub-label Fido has leaked and provided clues not only to devices coming to the West for the first time but a new BlackBerry device. A new Pearl Flip will represent a quick turnaround for RIM and will add HSPA-based 3G for faster Internet access; it will also be the first non-QWERTY phone from the company to have both GPS and Wi-Fi at the same time. The new Flip is due sometime in the first half of 2009 and will be available only through Rogers.
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12/24, 3:05pm
Nokia touchscreen Classic
Nokia is apparently set to introduce a new candybar handset, the 6208 Classic, which would be the Finnish company's first product that combines a touchscreen with a conventional alphanumeric keypad and is believed to run on a modified Symbian S40 interface to support the touchscreen functionality or a newly developed OS. In contrast, the company's N97 touchscreen smartphone use the newer Symbian S60 OS. The handset is believed to be slated for China, where touchscreens make entering the plethora of writing characters.
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12/01, 9:45am
Nokia Phone Tomorrow
Nokia is planning to kick off its Nokia World 2008 expo with the launch of a new phone that could be its first high-end touchscreen device, Fast Company's Robert Scoble says. A Nokia executive tells the online reporter that a phone announcement scheduled for the show has been kept unusually well hidden and that outsiders have "no clue" as to what will be unveiled. Even within the company, only "a handful of people" have seen the finished product, the official insists.
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11/27, 9:05am
Nokia 5800 Ships
Nokia today said it has started the first wave of shipments of the 5800 XpressMusic, its first touchscreen phone. The Symbian S60 device is already on sale or should be soon for the few regions receiving it before the end of the year, including Nokia's home country of Finland as well as Hong Kong, India, Russia, Spain and the Taiwan area. The company positions it as a near-smartphone with support for full apps, 3G, GPS and Wi-Fi but also a media-centric interface with an always-present media bar for navigating tracks, a 3.2-megapixel camera with video capture and a particularly sharp 640x360, 3.2-inch display.
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11/21, 4:40pm
Nokia gesture phone patent
With Finnish handset maker Nokia releasing its first touchscreen handset, the 5800 XpressMusic, early last month, now comes evidence the company will focus on a gesture-controlled interface, as per the company's Chief Designer, Alastair Curtis. He hinted at the potential of the gesture technology being incorporated into upcoming handsets earlier this week and Nokia already has a patent for the technology. The invention would use ultrasonic transducers (USTs) to detect a user's hand motion and gesture and track their relative location on the device's screen. Simple gestures such as opening or closing of a hand will open or close a program, respectively, and as an example.
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11/14, 9:50am
Nokia on 2009 Cell Market
Nokia today updated its guidance for the fall and for 2009 to predict a significant downturn across much of the mobile space. The Finnish company continues to expect its cellphone shipments to go up along with the rest of the industry but that both its own growth and world-level business will be slower than expected. Nokia itself now expects its volume in the fall to go up a relatively modest 20 million to a total of 330 million despite the traditional end-of-year spike. The world as a whole is thus likely to move a slightly lower 1.24 billion phones versus the 1.26 billion Nokia says it has estimated earlier.
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11/10, 3:20pm
Nokia Roadmap Leak
Nokia's tentative step into touchscreen phones this year with the 5800 XpressMusic is going to be matched up by as many as three devices in coming months, a leaked roadmap supplied to BGR shows. Aside from mentioning devices that are already complete inside the company, including the budget E63 QWERTY phone, the schedule also shows a trio of touchscreen devices, including two which should be finished on a basic level before the end of the year.
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11/04, 8:30am
Nokia 5130 XMusic and More
Nokia on Tuesday shifted focus to the budget realm with seven new phones that include its lowest-cost music phone yet. The 5130 XpressMusic (shown at top) is the top-end phone among the introductions but the company's lowest-cost true media phone. At 90 Euros ($113) without discounts, the phone still carries a two-megapixel camera, a full-size headphone jack, FM radio and dedicated music controls. It supports microSD for storage and comes pre-supplied with a 1GB card of its own at its price. Black-and-blue as well as black-and-red versions should ship in early 2009.
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