Nokia fails to impress with N9

Troubled mobile phone giant Nokia left analysts deeply unimpressed yesterday with the launch of a handset using software it plans to ditch.

The new N9 all-screen smartphone uses a system called MeeGo, but Nokia said it still plans to switch to Microsoft Windows later this year and the phone will be a one-off.

Royal Bank of Scotland analyst Didier Scemama said: "It seems pointless to launch a phone like the N9 on a platform that has been cut by management."

The Finnish company, which once dominated the smartphone market, has been losing ground to Apple and other rivals.

It brought in chief executive Stephen Elop, right, last year to turn around its fortunes, but Nokia's shares have plunged by more than half since February when a leaked memo from Elop compared the company's market position to a man standing on a burning oil platform. Research this month predicted Samsung and Apple would both overtake Nokia in the global smartphone market in the next six months.

Yesterday Elop reiterated his intention to launch a device using Microsoft Windows before the year's end. Research firm IDC's analyst Melissa Chau said the N9 would probably be a prototype to showcase what Nokia can bring in future phones.

"I don't expect, and don't even think Nokia expects, this phone to turn around its fortunes," she said. "All it wants to do with the phone is to inspire some confidence in people that it is not out of the game yet."