Nokia today unveiled its second mass-market commercial touchscreen device, following the successful 5800 phone. The Finnish vendor’s new 5530 XpressMusic smartphone features one-touch shortcuts to content and social networking applications such as Facebook and MySpace and will ship from the third quarter of this year. It will retail for EUR199 before taxes and subsidies. Surprisingly, a statement from Nokia said that the 5530 supports GSM/EDGE networks and has integrated wireless LAN, but no mention of HSPA support was given. The world’s largest handset vendor also announced two other devices today; its E72, an updated version of its top-selling E71 business phone, and the ‘3710 fold.’ The E72 will ship late in the third quarter for EUR350 before taxes and subsidies, while the 3710 will start selling in the fourth quarter for EUR140.
The vendor introduced its new product lineup at its Nokia Connection event in Singapore today. A Dow Jones Newswires report notes Chris Carr, Nokia’s VP of sales in SEAP region, as commenting that Nokia is seeing some stability returning to Asian markets on reduced volatility in foreign exchange rates in the region. However, the executive declined to provide specific financial guidance or targets and said it remains difficult to say what lies ahead for the industry or whether it has hit bottom. ABI Research claimed in a recent report that worldwide handset shipments fell 11.9 percent during the first quarter from a year earlier, but noted that the Asia-Pacific region managed to outperform, with shipments in the region falling 8 percent from a year earlier. “The next phase of growth will be very much driven by the emerging markets, including Indonesia, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Vietnam,” said Nokia’s Carr in a company statement. “Many of the population from these markets are accessing the Internet, information, education, and entertainment on their first mobile.”
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