Late smart phones coming soon, Nokia says
Six new smart phones miss their planned first-quarter shipping deadlines as Nokia works to sort out their software.
Company representatives said the models--three of its multimedia N-series handsets and three E-series phones aimed at business users--would start shipping to customers in the near future.
The company's premium music phone, the N91, will start shipping this week, Nokia Multimedia division spokesman Kari Tuutti said, adding that the N71 and N80 phones will start deliveries in the next two weeks or so.
Nokia had originally planned to have the N91 in the shops in time for last year's holiday-shopping season. But last September, the company said it was delaying shipments until the first quarter of 2006 while it worked on some software problems.
The phone's 4GB hard drive stores up to 3,000 songs.
"Because the devices are pocketable computers, we need to make sure of the software," Tuutti said.
Pekka Isosomppi, spokesman for Nokia's Enterprise division, which focuses on phones for business users, said the company missed its late March target to start shipping its E60, E61 and E71 models.
It was testing their software and expected to start shipments within the next few weeks.
The phones are part of the Finnish company's plan to win more of the corporate market, which is dominated by Research In Motion's BlackBerry.
"The basic issue is really about the interoperability of various enterprise applications...(like) e-mail device management and so on," Isosomppi said. "They all need to be cross-tested against one another."