03 April 2006

N91 shipping this week
while N71 & N80 after 2 weeks

HELSINKI (Reuters) - The world's largest handset maker Nokia said on Monday six of its new smartphones missed their planned first quarter shipping deadlines as it works to sort out their software.

Company officials 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 would start deliveries in the next two weeks or so.

Nokia had originally planned to have the N91 in the shops in time for Christmas last year, but said in September it was delaying shipments until the first quarter of 2006 while it worked on some software problems.

The phone's 4-gigabyte 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 end-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 RIM's BlackBerry.

"The basic issue is really about the interoperability of various enterprise applications ... (like) email device management and so on," he told Reuters. "They all need to be cross-tested against one another."

Nokia unveiled the new corporate phone line-up last October and said at the time that it would start shipments in the January-March quarter.

The three E-series phones operate on a similar platform, but Isosomppi said the company was prioritising the E61, which has a full keyboard and has attracted the most interest so far.