Nokia Will Offer Half the Number of Smartphone Models Next Year

As part of its efforts to stand up to tough competition, Nokia plans to offer significantly fewer smartphone models in 2010. This will allow it to give more attention to the ones it does release.

This company released about 20 smartphones in 2009, but will only offer about half that many next year.

"We have cut down unnecessary differentiation, so that we have a far more focused portfolio for next year. We can put more effort behind these products," said Antti Vasara, General Manager of Nokia’s Mobile Device business unit.

The company will depend more on software to differentiate its products “It is no longer a question of how many different kinds of mechanical variations are made," said Vasara.

A Troubled Time
Nokia did something last quarter has hasn't done in years: it lost money. Its share of the world smartphone market declined a bit, too.

It is making efforts to turn things around, and one of these was re-organizing its mobile phone unit this fall. After this re-org, it was made up of three divisions:

• Mobile Phones: Symbian S40 and S30 devices, headed by Rick Simonson
• Smartphones: Symbian S60 devices, headed by Jo Harlow
• Mobile Computers: Maemo devices, headed by John Martin

Source: Reuters