Nokia fuels hopes of phone launchahead of Apple

Wed Sep 12, 2012 11:27 pm

Nokia fuels hopes of
phone launch
ahead of Apple Sun Aug 15, 2012 5:40pm Mobile phone maker Nokia
Oyj said on Wednesday it will
hold a joint
media event with Microsoft
Corp in New
York on September 5, boosting hopes
that it will unveil its long-
awaited
Windows smartphone
upgrade before rival Apple
Inc rolls out its next iPhone. The Finnish company gave no
details
about the September event,
but Nokia
CEO Stephen Elop said earlier
on Wednesday the company
would unveil
soon a new smartphone
using
Microsoft's latest smartphone
software known as Windows Phone 8. The joint
event with Microsoft will
occur
a week before Apple is
expected to
unveil its own hotly anticipated iPhone 5. Nokia
has been fighting for survival
after
ceding vast ground to rivals
Apple and
Samsung Electronics Co Ltd in recent
years. In 2011 it forged a
software
alliance with Elop's former
employer,
Microsoft, which also fell behind in smartphone
software. Both Nokia and
Microsoft are pinning
their hopes on the next
Windows-based
phone to challenge Apple's iPhone and
Samsung's Galaxy
smartphone. Nokia has not
commented on specific
plans for its Nokia World
trade show event in Helsinki on
September 5 and 6. Elop did
not deny a September launch
when he spoke to reporters
earlier on
Wednesday. He said only that Windows
Phone 8 smartphones would
be
released in the "relatively
near term." Nokia shares,
which have been trading near all-time lows, rose
sharply in
Helsinki after Elop's
comments and
gained 3.4 percent to close at
2.0760 euros ($2.55) in Helsinki on
Wednesday.
Its U.S. shares closed up 6
percent at $ 2.64 on the New
York Stock Exchange. Also
on Wednesday, Standard & Poor's
downgraded Nokia's credit
rating to BB-
with a "negative" outlook.
Elop, who was brought in
from Microsoft two years ago to lead
Nokia's fight
against Apple and Samsung,
said he was
sticking to his strategy of
using Microsoft software despite the limited
success of
Windows phones so far.
Nokia decided in early 2011 to
ditch its
home-grown Symbian software in favor
of software from Microsoft.
"I don't think about
rewinding the clock
and thinking about
competing elsewhere," he told reporters
in Oslo. "In today's war ...
(between) Android,
Apple and Windows, we are
very clear,
we are fighting that with the Windows
phone," said Elop, who was
in Oslo for a
meeting with Telenor ASA
Chief
Executive Jon Fredrik Baksaas. Nokia lost 1.53
billion euros in the
second quarter and sold just 4
million
Windows phones in the
period, well short of Apple's sales of 26
million
iPhones and Samsung's 50
million
smartphones. Nokia
shrugged off S&P's downgrade,
saying it had sufficient
liquidity and was
saving money. S&P cut
Nokia's rating in
April to BB+ -- junk status -- meaning
conservative investors like
pension
funds will consider it too
risky to hold.