Nokia, the Finnish mobile phone group, has launched its first range of Windows handsets aimed at clawing back market share in the battle for smartphone sales.
Nokia’s once dominant position in the mobile market has declined at the expense of rivals such as Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android platform, having been slow to embrace the pace of change and consumer demand in the crucial high-margin smartphone market.
Stephen Elop, Nokia chief executive, said on Wednesday that with the flagship Lumia 800 handset, it had produced the “first real Windows phone” under the partnership with Microsoft struck this year. He has pinned his company’s hopes of recovery on the collaboration, aimed at producing a third mobile phone ecosystem to rival Android and Apple.