The world’s largest handset maker, Nokia, today said it will launch a new version of its flagship smartphone, N97, in the Indian market by the middle of October.
Nokia launched two music devices and a new version of N97, called the N97 Mini, during the Nokia World event here.
“Though the music devices will be available in India by Q4 (2009-10), we plan to bring the N97 Mini by October in the Indian market,” Nokia India Managing Director D. Shivakumar said.
Despite critics claiming that Nokia is not doing well in the high-end segment, Mr. Shivkumar said the company is not only doing well, the performance is beyond company’s expectation in the smartphone segment.
Globally, Nokia has sold about two million units of the original N97 within months of its launch. The launch of N97 was announced in the last Nokia World event and it hit the market only this June.
Nokia has been maintaining a market share of about 40 per cent worldwide and is a market leader in Indiain the low to high range.
Priced at about Rs 31,000 (450 euros), the N97 Mini features a tilting 3.2” touch display, QWERTY keyboard and fully customisable homescreen.
Though the N97 Mini has less in-built memory than its big brother, the selling point of the new version is Lifecasting.
The Finnish company has partnered with social networking site, Facebook, and people could update their location and status or Lifecast as called by Nokia, on the website through the device.
