Nokia

Nokia's much-rumored "Catwalk" phone apparently purred its way into last week's Mobile World Congress courtesy of a special invitation-only session.

Attending the session was Russian blogger Eldar Murtazin who got a chance to peek at and play with the phone. In a blog out today, Murtazin said that Nokia is gearing up the Catwalk as an enhancement over the Lumia 920.

Catwalk will be housed in a slimmer, all-aluminum body and offer a thinner version of the 920's PureView Phase 2 camera, according to a translation of Murtazin's comments by Electronista.

Prior reports about … Read more

Fresh off winning the Super Bowl, or at least the social media advertising wars during the NFL's championship, Oreo is now setting out to conquer the stars in the skies.

The cookie giant has teamed up with Nokia to release a stargazing app for Lumia Windows phones that could result in the heavens above being filled with virtual Oreos.

Called Oreo Skies, the app was designed to let users write messages and tag them to actual stars -- or at least to constellations.

It works like this. First, users can point their Lumia at the skies and pick a … Read more

Nokia Lumia 822 owners can expect a small gift from Finland today. An over-the-air software update began rolling out to the Verizon Wireless Windows Phone 8 device at 1 p.m. ET.

New features in the update include improved performance for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth and support for more microSD card brands. You'll also gain the ability to select an MP3 file as a ringtone, edit a multimedia message when forwarding, select multiple recipients for a message (yes!), and ignore calls with a text message reply.

A slightly downgraded Nokia Lumia 920, the Lumia 822 is one of three Windows … Read more

BARCELONA, Spain--Part of what makes Nokia phones like the Lumia 920, and the new Lumia 720 and Lumia 520, so distinctive are their bright color options. And part of what makes those shades pop is the use of polycarbonate, a type of plastic, as the body material.

Although Nokia hasn't ruled out an all-metal body, speaking at Mobile World Congress with Hans Henrik Lund, Nokia's vice president of product marketing for smart devices, makes me think that we won't be seeing metal Lumias anytime soon.

"The important part for us is that we're obsessed with differentiation,&… Read more

BARCELONA, Spain--The price of mobile devices and services will need to come down to connect the next billion people.

That's according to the CEOs of four major companies in the wireless arena: Nokia, Qtel Group, Bharti Airtel, and Mozilla.

"As an operator, we have to package services to the lower segment of the economy," said Nasser Marafih, CEO of the Qtel Group, during a keynote address at this week's Mobile World Congress.

Qtel yesterday announced a new brand, Ooredoo, which will cover various wireless carrier brands throughout the Middle East, Africa, and Southeast Asia. Much of … Read more

BARCELONA, Spain--Sit Nokia CEO Stephen Elop down for a few moments, and one thing becomes immediately clear: Nokia is all about differentiating.

Ever since the beginning of the company's resurgence two years ago when it reshaped itself as a maker of Windows phones, Nokia has celebrated its difference, its European heritage, and even a level of quirkiness.

Today, Elop reinforced the message again and again as he addressed a small gathering of journalists at Mobile World Congress here.

Nokia Lumia designs are special, Elop says, since they're bold. The PureView imaging algorithms and camera stabilization springs are a … Read more

BARCELONA, Spain--Nokia has just thrown the curtains open on its new additions to the Windows Phone 8-packing Lumia range. The baby of the bunch -- the Lumia 520 -- starts at only 139 euros (around $185 or 120 pounds) making it the cheapest way into Windows Phone you'll find But Nokia's Vice President of Smart Devices Marketing, Hans Henrik Lund, hinted that even cheaper Lumias could be on the way.

Speaking behind the multi-coloured Nokia stand at Mobile World Congress here, Lund explained, "I believe 139 [euros] is not the lowest price point we can get to. … Read more

BARCELONA, Spain--Here's one thing I really like about Nokia's new Nokia 301: it truly looks like an updated version of a typical Nokia cell phone, with a solid, rectangular candy bar shape, a central select button within a four-directional navigation array, and dialpad buttons below. Like other phones that came before, the 301 runs on Nokia's Series 40 interface.

Instead of the legacy silver paint job, this one gets a body in Nokia's new signature colors: white, black, cyan, bright yellow, and magenta.

The color scheme is one hint of many that Nokia geared the 310 … Read more

BARCELONA, Spain--With the Lumia 720 and 520, Nokia has a shot of getting back in the China game.

The announcements at today's Mobile World Congress press conference were about Nokia filling out its portfolio with a few more budget-friendly smartphones, as well as two basic cellphones it files under the category of "first phone."

But in doing so, the company has given itself additional ammunition to re-enter the Chinese market with a bit more swagger. As with many other parts of the world, the company has struggled to offset the declines in its traditional Symbian phone business … Read more