MUMBAI: Nokia, world's largest handset maker unveiled three new smartphones in an attempt to increase its market share and to remain the top smartphone maker worldwide.

At its annual Nokia World event in London, Nokia launched the three new devices- E7, C7 and C6, all using the latest Symbian software. The devices, along with the awaited N8, will form a portfolio of phones running on Nokia's updated operating system.

Nokia is in the middle of a major management revamp, with the company announcing that its chief executive and chairman will step down on September 21 and its smartphone devices head resigning on Monday.

Nokia still controls around 40 percent of the global smartphone market volume, but has lost out to Apple and Research in Motion's Blackberry in the fatter-margin market for the most expensive cellphone models.

Claiming that Nokia sells more smartphones than rivals, Nokia vice-president said, "Nokia sells 260,000 smartphones every day. We plan to sell 50 million new smartphones post its launch."

Despite claiming 24 percent of worldwide smartphone sales between April and June, Nokia has not kept pace "with the overall growth of the smartphone market," according to market research firm IDC (IDC and PC World are both owned by International Data Group). Nokia has been facing tough competition in India where it is the market leader, from home-grown phone-makers, which are offering feature-rich mobiles at cheap prices. Competitors such as Apple's iPhone, and devices from HTC and Samsung largely using Google's Android OS have steadily chipped away at Nokia's once dominant lead.

"Today, our fight back to smartphone leadership shifts into high gear," said Nokia markets executive VP Niklas Savander to the media. "Despite new competition, Symbian remains the most widely used smartphone platform in the world. Our new family of smartphones introduced today features the all-new Symbian OS, rewritten to be faster, easier to use, more efficient and more developer friendly."

According to Nokia, the latest version of the Symbian platform brings more than 250 new features and improvements such as the latest beta release of free Ovi Maps with new pedestrian and motorist features.

Savander also commented on the high level of anticipation for the Nokia N8. "Based on the level of consumer interest and the highest online pre-orders in Nokia history, we expect big things from the Nokia N8."

The Nokia E7 features a 4-inch widescreen AMOLED 640-by-360 resolution capacitive touch display, and a slideout keyboard. The E7 also comes with 16GB onboard memory; 256MB RAM; an 8 megapixel camera with dual LED flash and 720p high-definition video capture; Bluetooth 3.0, GPS and 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi connectivity; HDMI out and a micro USB 2.0 port. Nokia claims the device will provide nine hours of talk time over GSM networks, and five hours over WCDMA. The E7 will come in dark gray, silver white, green, blue and orange. The handset is priced at EUR 500 (Rs 30,000).

The social-networking focused C7 comes with Facebook, Twitter and Webmail integration on the device's home screen. The C7's display is a 3.5-inch AMOLED capacitive touchscreen with a 640-by-360 resolution. The device also has a thin profile at 0.41 inches, slightly larger than the iPhone 4's 0.37-inch profile.

Just like the E7, the C7 features an 8 megapixel camera with dual LED flash and 720p video capture; five to nine hours of talk time; and Bluetooth 3.0, GPS and 802.11b/g/n connectivity. Onboard storage for the C7 is 8GB with a microSD card slot that supports up to 32GB for a maximum 40GB total storage.

The C7 also features a 3.5mm A/V connector to display content on an external monitor or television, as well as a stereo FM radio and FM transmitter. The C7 comes in charcoal black, frosty metal and mahogany brown. Launch date for US hasn't been announced but the C7 will sell for EUR 340 (Rs 20,000).

The smallest of the bunch, the Nokia C6 features a 3.2-inch AMOLED capacitive touch widescreen with a 640-by-360 resolution. The C6 is also sporting a front-facing camera for video calling, and a rear-facing camera with 8 megapixels, dual LED flash, 720p video capture and 2X digital zoom. The smartphone has a miniscule 340 MB internal storage, but includes microSD card support for another 32GB. Other features include GPS, 802.11b/g/n and Bluetooth 3.0 connectivity; FM stereo radio; and a 3.5mm A/V connector. Nokia claims the C6 has 11.5 hours of talk time over GSM networks. The C6 comes in black and silver grey. The retail price of the phone is estimated to be EUR 260 (Rs 15,500).

Though the devices will start hitting the markets by the fourth quarter of this year, it is still not clear how long Indian consumers will have to wait to get their hands on the devices.