Nokia to release new device in six countries; RIM woes continue

Jamie Hinks
June 17, 2011
2 Comments

Nokia Windows 7 PhonesNokia and Microsoft will release their new Windows Phone 7 devices in Europe before unleashing them on the unsuspecting public in the USA. Victor Saeijs, VP for Nokia Europe, revealed the news at the Mobile Netherlands conference. He told attendees that France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain and the UK would be the territories to benefit from the first incarnation of the Nokiasoft phone. Nokia did outline in its earlier strategy that it would be focusing on emerging markets such as China so it’s slightly puzzling that they’re going back to their old stomping ground first. They are the countries with the highest smart phone adoption though and for mobile gaming companies they are some of the main markets in which they operate.

Another company that has been having quite the woeful time of late, Research in Motion (RIM), announced another poor set of figures for the first quarter of the financial year. They confirmed that sales of their flagship BlackBerry phones have disappointed. RIM shipped around 13.2million BlackBerry, a figure that is poor in comparison with Apple’s 18.6million iPhone shipments.

Co-CEO Jim Balsillie said in a statement, “Fiscal 2012 has gotten off to a challenging start. The slowdown we saw in the first quarter is continuing into Q2, and delays in new product introductions into the very late part of August are leading to a lower than expected outlook in the second quarter. RIM’s business is profitable and remains solid overall with growing market share in numerous markets around the world and a strong balance sheet with almost $3 billion in cash. We believe that with the new products scheduled for launch in the next few months and realigning our cost structure, RIM will see strong profit growth in the latter part of fiscal 2012.”

The company’s revenue was down 12% compared with the previous quarter but was up 16% as opposed to last year and PlayBook sales of 500,000 was a bright spark for the company. Mobile gaming manufacturers may be put off by the fact the new BlackBerry Bold Touch won’t be available until at least September. They wonder why everyone’s having a field day with Android and Apple!

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Tags: Article, Nokia, Research In Motion, Windows Phone 7
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