It's shaping up to be a cold autumn for smartphone makers other than Apple, which is getting ready to release the next iPhone.
Nokia and Motorola, which a few years ago were the number one and two phone makers, revealed new phones at back-to-back press events in New York yesterday.
They appeared to be hurrying to show them off before Apple makes its rumoured iPhone announcement next week.
The phones are impressive in their own right and sport improvements from previous models, but analysts didn't see anything about them that would change the prospect of an iPhone-dominated holiday season.
For Nokia the new phones are especially crucial.
They're the first to run Windows Phone 8, and the Finnish company is hinging its turnaround strategy on an alliance with Microsoft.
But the reveal fell flat with investors, as Nokia's stock plunged 16 per cent.
Nokia's new flagship phone is the Lumia 920.
The lenses on its camera shift to compensate for shaky hands, resulting in sharper images in low light and smoother video capture, Nokia said.
It can also be charged without being plugged in - the user just places it on a wireless charging pod.
Nokia also unveiled a cheaper, mid-range phone, the Lumia 820. It doesn't have the special camera lenses, but has exchangeable backs so you can switch colours.
Nokia chief executive Stephen Elop said the new phones will go on sale in the fourth quarter in "select markets". Investors seem to have expected more specifics, or an earlier launch. Nokia shares fell US45c to US$2.38 in New York. The stock is trading at the same level it had in the mid-1990s.
Gartner analyst Ken Dulaney said the new phones were impressive, but he thought Microsoft was killing the buzz by holding back on details about Windows 8.
He suspects Microsoft and Nokia announced the Lumia phones early to steal some thunder from the next iPhone.
"Microsoft should have spent more time filling in the holes for this product release instead of worrying so much about what Apple was going to do," he said.
Neil Mawston, an analyst with Strategy Analytics, said Nokia's new smartphones lacked a "wow" factor.
"The devices that were launched were more of an evolution rather than a revolution," Mawston said.
"This was a baby step for Nokia and Microsoft and not really a giant leap like some were hoping."
Nokia launched its first Windows phones late last year under the Lumia brand, as the first fruits of Elop's alliance with Microsoft.
Those ran Windows Phone 7 software, which is effectively being orphaned in the new version. The older phones can't be upgraded, and they won't be able to run all applications written for Windows Phone 8.
Nokia sold 4 million Lumia phones in the second quarter, far fewer than the 26 million iPhones that Apple sold during those three months.
So far, the line hasn't helped Nokia halt its sales decline. Its global market share shrank from the peak of 40 per cent in 2008 to 29 per cent last year, and it is expected to dwindle further this year.
For Microsoft, the alliance with Nokia is its best chance to get into smartphones again, where it has been marginalised by the rise of the iPhone and then phones running Google's Android software.
The launch of Windows Phone 8 coincides roughly with the launch of Windows 8 for PCs and tablets, set for October 26.
Gene Munster at Piper Jaffray said Apple might sell 6 million to 10 million iPhones in the last week of this month. That compares with 9 million Motorola sold in the 12 weeks of the second quarter, research firm Gartner said.
- AP
