I like praising Nokia when it comes to NFC technology because the Finnish manufacturer is the most interested one on the market. Though recently HTC announced it’ll launch smartphones with a similar functionality, we understand Nokia’s been there for a long time now and its cards are better. However, this doesn’t mean Nokia will clutch at a single payment system.

Though Nokia has the most NFC-enabled devices and in the near future their number will increase, the company doesn’t consider it clever to commit to one payment system. In an interview with Electronista, the company’s VP of Location and Commerce, Michael Halbherr said Nokia’s open for various mobile payment schemes. Moreover, Nokia may create its own version of the mobile wallet down the line.

As you guess Nokia’s serious, and considering that this technology will be used mostly in the U.S. and the “main smartphone markets,” we assume Nokia has real plans on how to win U.S. smartphone users’ hearts. Altogether, I think many things will depend on how the first Windows Phone smartphones will be sold in the States.

We recently talked about Nokia’s partnership with Monster headsets, which was then followed by a similar partnership between HTC and Beat Technology. The purpose of such cooperations is to provide better sound quality and to help manufacturers promote their products. Moreover, partnerships like this work in favor of headset makers, as well.

Yesterday at Nokia World 2011 the company announced not only its first Windows Phone-flowered devices, Asha line handsets and special apps, but also the first output of the exclusive long-term partnership between Nokia and Monster, the Purity headsets. These accessories are mainly made to work with Lumia phones, and the colors they come with correspond to the colors of the Lumia smartphones.

So the first product is the Purity HD Stereo Headset, which is an over-ear model. It weighs 180 grams (6.35oz) and can be connected to the phone via standard 3.5mm jack.

The in-ear Nokia Purity headphones weigh lighter, only 18 grams (0.63oz) and come with an inline volume controller.

Both headsets are designed with a taste, and I’m sure they’ll help Lumia line smartphones become popular.

The achievements the manufacturers register are beneficial not only for them, but also for other companies. One of the best proofs of my words is the HTC and Betas Audio cooperation. Now it looks like Nokia’s going to repeat something of that kind. The Finnish company’s going to launch a pair of Monster headphones.

An image was sent to Pocketnow showing a dubbed Nokia Purity HD Stereo Headset. Judging by the photo, they seem to be portable; they lack the cables. However, probably the headphones have cables, but as it usually happens, the headphone manufacturers leave unwieldy cables out of their press shots.

Honestly, I do not think this cooperation will reach the level HTC-Beats Audio cooperation has, though in my humble opinion Nokia’s on the right direction. These words refer not only to Monster, but also to Microsoft and its native Windows Phone operation. But not everything is perfect in this deal because Monster Cable is known for its peddling overpriced cables. But I don’t think Nokia will obstruct itself bringing expensive accessories to its hard-selling handsets.

Elbert Perez’s Occasional Gamer site is very popular nowadays because the author has collected some stats about the upcoming handsets. However, at this time we must look at the online list once more as we have been wrong earlier when we were thinking the Nokia 800 is the same Nokia SeaRay. The updated list clearly shows these are different handsets (or maybe the same smartphone is designed for different networks).

We knew Nokia is working on other WP-powered devices besides the SeaRay, but there was no information about them, so we tend to think there is only one handset being tested. Honestly, I think the Nokia 800 is not one from Windows Phone handsets, it’s more like one of those smartphones that must run Symbian Anna and sport a 1GHz processor.

Anyway, the updated list is clear, and if everything is correct (I mean Elbert Perez’s research), we’ll see a completely new Nokia smartphone soon. But if they are the same models produced for different networks, then Nokia wants to repeat the same practice as Motorola and HTC do for their Droid (Milestone) lines (like the HTC Arrive and the HTC 7 Pro, respectively).

Source

International Data Corporation (IDC) has conducted research and found out that in the first quarter of 2011 the global smartphone market has shown a remarkable 79.7 percent growth. At the moment the market has 99.6 million smartphones, most of which were manufactured by HTC, Samsung and Apple. And we shouldn’t forget about Nokia, too.

HTC, Samsung, Apple and their smartphones are really very popular at the moment. For example, HTC’s market share has grown to 8.9 percent (it was only 4.9 percent last year); in 2010 the company manufactured about 30 million devices, and in the first quarter of 2011 it manufactured 8.9 million units (even if they continue like this and create 8.9 million devices each quarter, in 2011 they’ll sell 35.6 million devices, which is also good growth compared to the last year).

Samsung’s and iPhone’s results were also remarkable. Samsung showed even greater growth than HTC – from 4.3 percent to 10.8 percent, while iPhone’s results were more humble, but good anyway – from 15.7 percent to 18.7 percent.

As for Nokia, the company still remains the leader in the market despite of the continuous share loss – from 38.3 percent to 24.3 percent. Perhaps the reason of Nokia’s failure is hidden in the fact that most of Nokia’s products are feature phones, not smartphones that are becoming more and more popular now. And besides, Symbian^3, which is used in Nokia smartphones, isn’t that popular at the moment, and Android is beating it.

However, the things can change very soon – in the last quarter of this year, when Nokia introduces its first smartphones based on Microsoft’s OS. I guess Nokia hopes their agreement with Microsoft will bring success and fame to both companies, and they’ll start regaining their market shares again. We’ll see.

Not so long ago the experts of mobile devices industry used to claim Nokia was the leading company in the industry. However, recent research showed that Nokia’s stock price has dropped by 19 percent and made up $32.84 billion, thus making the Finnish manufacturer give way to the Taiwanese HTC, which managed to show a 33 percent stock growth.

Experts say that these numbers should be a signal for action for Nokia and make it develop more marketable devices.

What could affect Nokia’s market capitalization? There are many assumptions concerning this. Perhaps Nokia’s main problem is the fact that it depends on Symbian too much and is really slow to respond to the rapidly changing market conditions: Android and iPhone emerged the market, and Nokia didn’t seem to do much to keep its positions. Maybe making new devices on Windows Phone 7 will help Nokia, maybe it won’t. It’s too early to say anything about this now.

So, Nokia is now second to HTC with its $33.88 billion market capitalization. Will Nokia stop and give up now? I don’t think so. The company is ready to provide a range of new high-end smartphones this year. HTC also does not sleep, of course, and is going to introduce a new smartphone called the Sensation. Let’s wait and see which company’s device will be a real sensation.

YouGov, which is the leading company for the market research in the UK, has recently published a study called Mobile Internet Experience. It is interesting because it shows how popular is a particular brand among the young people. Well, studies have been rather disappointing for Nokia. New smartphones of the Finnish company enjoy less and less popularity.

YouGov conducted a survey last month (most likely only in the UK) among 2,121 users of smartphones with the question – what brand smartphone you bought? 56% of respondents said that it was Apple iPhone, 34% said that Nokia, 31% – BlackBerry, and 28% – HTC. It is worth noting that a similar survey conducted in December of the last year, and the percentage of people who have chosen Nokia, was 46%. So, 12% for 6 months is not enough a pleasant result.

Experts believe that the impact on the popularity loss is based on Symbian operating system. But it seems, Meego will be able to compete with iPhone OS and Android.