Nokia followed up its downbeat first-quarter results report yesterday with comments that the world’s largest handset vendor is seeing signs of stabilising demand and now plans to rejuvenate the high-end of its handset portfolio. “The market is no longer falling in an uncontrolled manner, I am encouraged by the signs of stabilisation seen at the end of the first quarter,” Nokia chief executive Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo said during a conference call, reports the Wall Street Journal (WSJ). In an earlier statement, Kallasvuo noted that the “demand picture” for the second quarter has become “more predictable,” with the vendor expecting total industry mobile device volumes in the second quarter to be “at approximately the same level [as the first quarter] or up slightly sequentially.” Meanwhile, Nokia plans to focus more efforts on its high-end device portfolio. Although the company believes that total global industry smartphone shipments – or ‘converged devices’ as Nokia calls them – increased to 36 million units in the first quarter 2009, up from 33.3 million in the year-earlier period, Nokia’s own shipments in this sector fell from 14.6 million units in Q1 2008 to 13.7 million in the first-quarter of this year. “Touchscreen, QWERTY and smartphones are important… and we will renew our portfolio,” said Kallasvuo, adding that Nokia will launch seven new smartphones from the second quarter, with plans to further strengthen its portfolio towards the end of the year.

The WSJ notes that Nokia shares have fallen 48 percent in the past year, bottoming out at a near 10-year low of EUR6.91 before rebounding sharply in the past month. Shares rose after its earnings announcement yesterday to trade about 10 percent higher early Thursday on the Nasdaq Stock Market. Read full details of Nokia’s Q1 results announcement here.