Nokia shifts focus to CDMA handsets to reinforce market share

World's No1 mobile phone seller eager to retake lead as dominance slips to emerging Asian competitors in the sector

Nokia, the world's No1 mobile handset vendor which has seen its share slipping to Asian rivals, is looking to reinforce its leadership through increased focus on the CDMA, or code division multiple access, telecommunications standard.

Having already launched 10 CDMA handsets this year, Soren Petersen, senior vice-president for Nokia's mobile phones business group, said that Nokia's share in the market had doubled in three years.

Although Nokia's entry to the CDMA market lagged behind its rivals, it had successfully built up its product portfolio to win global market share, including in China, Mr Petersen said.

Since its first CDMA handsets hit the market in 1997, Nokia - based in Finland - has produced about 50 million handsets based on the standard, in 48 models. Now, the mobile giant offers 17 CDMA handset models worldwide.

'We may be a latecomer in CDMA, but we consider CDMA an important market for us ... in Asia we are a leader in Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, and other [markets],' he said.

Mr Petersen said for this year, Nokia's global market share of CDMA stood in the 'high-teens', growing from an 8 per cent to 10 per cent portion of the sector as of 2001.