Nokia, the Finnish cellphone maker, has introduced two smartphones, the first fruits of its alliance with Microsoft, in a bid to curb its declining market share.
Nokia?s chief executive, Stephen A Elop, presented the Lumia 800, a 420 euro ($584) touch-screen device, and the Lumia 710, a 270 euro handset at a company product introduction.
Both devices are being sold in six European countries and will be sold later this year in parts of Asia.
Other smartphones are planned for the United States, but not until early next year.
Analysts said the Nokia smartphones, the result of an eight-month collaboration with Microsoft, could also help Microsoft extend its dominant computer software business into the cellphone and mobile device market. The software has received positive reviews, but few handset makers are using it.
The new lineup aims to revive Nokia?s tarnished reputation as an innovative force in mobile phones, an industry it pioneered and dominated until Apple and Google, helped by more user-friendly software, wrested control of the smartphone business four years ago.
?Nokia really needed this to happen today, and this is a new start for the company,? said Pete Cunningham, an analyst based in London with the research firm Canalys.
?This helps stop the bleeding and will help Nokia get back in the game.?
Elop also said Nokia was planning to push its smartphones into the US, where it has struggled, early next year. He said Nokia was in advanced talks with four major American operators. Nokia?s new smartphones for the US will run on 4G networks that use a technology called LTE, or Long Term Evolution, as well as on 3G networks.