STRUGGLING Nokia Corp will launch the first Windows Mobile phone on the Chinese mainland on Saturday as part of a key move by the Finland-based company to regain losing market share.

Nokia, still the world's No. 1 phone maker by sales, will launch the new Lumia 800C phone for China Telecom's CDMA network in the domestic market, the world's biggest mobile phone market, Stephen Elop, Nokia's president and CEO, said yesterday in Beijing.

It is the first new system Nokia phone announcement on the mainland after the company revealed a year ago its cooperation with Microsoft Corp to develop Windows Mobile phone.

"Nokia is now a new player in the fiercely-competing (smartphone) market and it's a new start for the giant," said Sandy Shen, an analyst at Gartner Inc, a US-based IT consulting firm.

Although still the leader in the domestic market, Nokia has seen its share fall to 15 percent by the end of last year, compared with above 20 percent at the start of last year and over 30 percent at its peak in previous years, according to research firms including Gartner and Analysys.

Rivals including Samsung and Apple have gained market shares with phones running on Android and iOS systems respectively, analysts said.

Gartner said, however, that by 2015 the market share of Windows Phone will surpass that of Apple's iOS.

The sales of Windows Phone devices are forecast at 216 million units, with a 19.5 percent share in the smartphone market, compared with 17.2 percent of iOS and 48.8 percent of Android, according to Gartner.

Source:shanghaidaily