12/4/2009:
Move in response to 'really fierce competition'
Nokia is slashing its smartphone portfolio by half, but will stick with the Symbian operating system.
The move is part of Nokia’s fight back against 'really fierce competition' at the high end of the market and rising competition at the low end, according to Nokia’s new head of its smartphone division, Jo Harlow.
Nokia has lost ground to Apple's iPhone and RIM's Blackberry at the high end of the market and increasingly at the low end from Samsung, which is rapidly increasing its smartphones sales.
Nokia is campaigning on a number of fronts. Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasuvo has already revealed plans to push smartphone prices down.
At the same time Nokia is putting major resources into developing the Ovi App Store to challenge Apple’s supremacy.
The handset manufacturer is also making Symbian more open to developers by not charging licence fees.