nokia in china

BEIJING—Nokia Corp. unveiled its first cellphone developed with China's homegrown third-generation mobile technology Tuesday, saying it would aim to "democratize" the smart phone market by aiming to sell lower-priced handsets at higher volumes.

The phone and others like it in the company pipeline could help Nokia, which has struggled globally to keep pace with Apple Inc. in the fast-growing, higher-margin market for premium smart phones since Apple's iPhone was released in 2007, to close some of the gap by capitalizing on its strength in developing markets. But its look--a slider-style with a mirror-like screen—isn't much different than what consumers have seen before.

The Nokia 6788 would ship by the end of the year, but hasn't been priced yet, said Nokia Chief Executive Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo. The world's biggest cellphone maker has made the "strategic decision to invest" in the Chinese standard, called TD-SCDMA, and will strive "for market leadership" in that technology, he said.
Digits

* A Verizon iPhone Is 'Exclusively in Apple's Court,' Verizon Says

Colin Giles, president of Nokia China and soon to be the head of global sales for the company, said Nokia is still in negotiations with operator China Mobile Ltd. about how to price the future lineup.

At the event, officials from China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and state-run China Mobile were present to support the company's first entry into China's TD-SCDMA handset offerings.

Mr. Kallasvuo said Nokia had about 38% market share globally in the third quarter, and that its share in China is in line with that. The company is currently the leading cellphone maker in China, largely thanks to its success in difficult-to-penetrate lower-tier cities, he said.

Mr. Kallasvuo has said the Finnish company plans to upgrade its smart-phone portfolio in the fourth quarter to take advantage of growing consumer interest in the category.

"Mobile Internet usage will only accelerate," he said to reporters. It's clear consumers will want applications like maps and email "integrated into a single mobile device," he said at the event, in which the company commemorated the tenth anniversary of its Beijing product creation center, from which more than 60 handsets have been created for the global market.

Meanwhile, Apple has rapidly gained market share globally. In the second quarter, its smart-phone market share had risen to 13.3% against 45% for Nokia, none of whose smart phones have garnered the same kind of attention as the iPhone. That compares to Apple's 3% market share just a year earlier when Nokia had 47%, according to recent figures from research firm Gartner Inc.

Nokia, which has spent about €40 billion ($60 billion) in research and development, is currently suing Apple for allegedly infringing 10 of Nokia's patents covering wireless data, speech ecoding, security and encryption with the iPhone. Mr. Kallasvuo declined to comment on the lawsuit Tuesday.

China Mobile, the world's largest mobile carrier by number of subscribers, has plans to roll out several smart phones this year in addition to the 6788 in efforts to promote faster 3G service, and expects this market to grow in China. One of its competitors, China Unicom (Hong Kong) Ltd., which operates a different 3G standard called WCDMA, is expecting to launch the iPhone this quarter as well.

Write to Loretta Chao at loretta.chao@wsj.com