HP eyes tablet comeback with Android-backed Slate 7.

• 
  View Photo
  Reuters/Reuters - A Hewlett-Packard logo is seen at the company's Executive Briefing Center in Palo Alto, California January 16, 2013. REUTERS/Stephen Lam.
  
  

(Reuters) - Hewlett-Packard Co announced the launch of a $169 tablet powered by the Android operating system, a centerpiece of the company's effort to expand in mobile devices and reduce its dependence on the shrinking personal computer market.

The launch of the Slate 7 marks HP's latest foray into the consumer tablet market. It follows the 2011 failure of its WebOS-based TouchPad, which the company stopped selling after just seven weeks, citing poor demand.

Powered by Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, the Slate 7 offers Google Inc services including search functions, YouTube and Gmail, as well as Beats Audio for improved sound, HP said.

The 13-ounce device also includes access to apps and digital content through Google Play, and cameras on both sides of the 7-inch screen.

HP said it expects U.S. sales of the Slate 7 to begin in April, and said the product offer a "compelling entry point" for people looking to buy tablets.

Google's Nexus 7 tablet costs $199, as does Amazon.com Inc's Kindle Fire HD.

HP also makes the ElitePad tablet for businesses, which is powered by Microsoft Corp's Windows 8. WebOS had been developed by Palm Inc, which HP bought in 2010.

The Slate7 is part of a multi-year plan by HP Chief Executive Meg Whitman to turn around the Silicon Valley icon.

HP in recent years has struggled with costly acquisitions, management turnover, governance issues, and falling sales and margins from PCs, where the Palo Alto, California-based company still has the largest U.S. market share.

Shares of HP closed Friday 12.3 percent higher at $19.20 on the New York Stock Exchange, a day after HP reported quarterly results and an outlook that exceeded analysts' forecasts.

The company's market value has nevertheless dropped by nearly two-thirds since April 2010.

HP announced the Slate 7 on the eve of the Mobile World Congress, a wireless industry trade show taking place this week in Barcelona, Spain.

Nokia strengthens basic range with 15 euro phone

• 
  View Photo
  Reuters/Reuters - Picture shows a Nokia logo at a shop in Warsaw, January 26, 2012. REUTERS/Kacper Pempel

BARCELONA (Reuters) - Nokia launched a 15-euro ($20) phone to shore up its position in the basic handset market, where it has lost share while it focused on developing expensive smartphones.

It also unveiled a 65-euro phone with some Internet access and lower-priced versions of its Lumia smartphones, filling the gaps in its product line-up between its high-end Lumia devices that run Microsoft software and mid-tier Asha feature phones.

The Finnish company hopes the new phones will increase sales in emerging markets and help it regain its once-solid footing at the cheaper end of the market, where it makes the bulk of its handset revenue. Sales of basic phones fell over 20 percent in 2012 to 9.4 billion euros.

"That is a key part of our approach to competition, particularly in a country like China," said Chief Executive Stephen Elop at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

"There's a very large number of inexpensive and largely undifferentiated devices. We believe we have to offer differentiation at each price point."

The entry-level Nokia 105, its lowest priced ever device with a color screen, was aimed at first-time buyers in markets such as South America, Africa, Russia and Asia-Pacific, he said.

The phone shows Nokia, once the undisputed leader in the mobile phone industry, trying to fend off growing competition at the low end from Asian rivals such as Huawei and ZTE.

IDC research director Francisco Jeronimo said it would probably be the cheapest phone available in the world from a major brand when it goes on sale later this quarter.

"The pressure is now on the Chinese vendors. Why will any consumer in the world buy a cheap Chinese phone when they can have the same price with better quality from a well known brand?" he said.

LOWER LUMIA ENTRY POINT

The Finnish phonemaker also lowered the entry point of its Lumia smartphones with a new model, the Lumia 520, priced at 139 euros ($180).

Most other Lumia phones cost over $200, and the top-of-the-range 920 can retail at over $600 without a carrier contract in the United States and some European markets.

The 920 model was launched last November and has won plaudits from industry analysts for features such as photography and mapping. Sales, however, have been dwarfed by devices from the likes of Samsung running Google's Android and Apple's iPhone.

Nokia's market share in smartphones has fallen to around 5 percent, while Apple and Samsung together control over half the market.

A new lower entry point for the Lumia 520 would enable Nokia to better compete with some mid-tier Android devices, analysts said.

Feature phones, in the middle market between high-end smartphones and cheaper basic phones, are seen increasingly crucial even though many consumers in developed markets are moving on to smartphones.

"In short, Nokia can still cash the feature phone market with around 5 percent margins even though it is shrinking," said Inderes analyst Mikael Rautanen.

IDC's Jeronimo said the new products, which included the Lumia 720 smartphone with the same camera lens as the 920, gave Nokia a comprehensive range, leaving little excuse for poor sales.

"If Nokia does not improve its market performance with these devices, then they will never do without a radical change in its portfolio strategy," he said.

Nokia strengthens basic range with 15 euro phone

• 
  View Photo
  Reuters/Reuters - Picture shows a Nokia logo at a shop in Warsaw, January 26, 2012. REUTERS/Kacper Pempel

BARCELONA (Reuters) - Nokia launched a 15-euro ($20) phone to shore up its position in the basic handset market, where it has lost share while it focused on developing expensive smartphones.

It also unveiled a 65-euro phone with some Internet access and lower-priced versions of its Lumia smartphones, filling the gaps in its product line-up between its high-end Lumia devices that run Microsoft software and mid-tier Asha feature phones.

The Finnish company hopes the new phones will increase sales in emerging markets and help it regain its once-solid footing at the cheaper end of the market, where it makes the bulk of its handset revenue. Sales of basic phones fell over 20 percent in 2012 to 9.4 billion euros.

"That is a key part of our approach to competition, particularly in a country like China," said Chief Executive Stephen Elop at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

"There's a very large number of inexpensive and largely undifferentiated devices. We believe we have to offer differentiation at each price point."

The entry-level Nokia 105, its lowest priced ever device with a color screen, was aimed at first-time buyers in markets such as South America, Africa, Russia and Asia-Pacific, he said.

The phone shows Nokia, once the undisputed leader in the mobile phone industry, trying to fend off growing competition at the low end from Asian rivals such as Huawei and ZTE.

IDC research director Francisco Jeronimo said it would probably be the cheapest phone available in the world from a major brand when it goes on sale later this quarter.

"The pressure is now on the Chinese vendors. Why will any consumer in the world buy a cheap Chinese phone when they can have the same price with better quality from a well known brand?" he said.

LOWER LUMIA ENTRY POINT

The Finnish phonemaker also lowered the entry point of its Lumia smartphones with a new model, the Lumia 520, priced at 139 euros ($180).

Most other Lumia phones cost over $200, and the top-of-the-range 920 can retail at over $600 without a carrier contract in the United States and some European markets.

The 920 model was launched last November and has won plaudits from industry analysts for features such as photography and mapping. Sales, however, have been dwarfed by devices from the likes of Samsung running Google's Android and Apple's iPhone.

Nokia's market share in smartphones has fallen to around 5 percent, while Apple and Samsung together control over half the market.

A new lower entry point for the Lumia 520 would enable Nokia to better compete with some mid-tier Android devices, analysts said.

Feature phones, in the middle market between high-end smartphones and cheaper basic phones, are seen increasingly crucial even though many consumers in developed markets are moving on to smartphones.

"In short, Nokia can still cash the feature phone market with around 5 percent margins even though it is shrinking," said Inderes analyst Mikael Rautanen.

IDC's Jeronimo said the new products, which included the Lumia 720 smartphone with the same camera lens as the 920, gave Nokia a comprehensive range, leaving little excuse for poor sales.

"If Nokia does not improve its market performance with these devices, then they will never do without a radical change in its portfolio strategy," he said.

Huawei reveals 'fastest smartphone in the world'

• 
  View Photo
  Associated Press/Huawei - This undated product image provided by Huawei, shows the Chinese company's new flagship model that it calls "the fastest smartphone in the world."The company said Sunday, Feb. 24, 2012, the device supports faster download speeds than other phones, but today's wireless networks aren't equipped to supply those speeds. (AP Photo/Huawei).

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Huawei, a Chinese company that recently became the world's third-largest maker of smartphones, calls its new flagship product "the fastest smartphone in the world" and wants to use it to expand global awareness of its brand.

Parts of the presentation of the phone at a press conference Sunday in Barcelona, Spain, suggest that the company has some way to go in polishing its pitch for a global audience.

Richard Yu, head of Huawei's consumer business group said the new phone can be programmed to display more than 100 different "themes," or looks. This is important because "ladies like flowers, colorful things," Yu said.

Yu also said Huawei is learning from Apple how to make Google's Android software easier to use, a lawsuit-friendly utterance considering that Apple is on a global campaign to sue makers of Android phones for copying from the iPhone.

The new phone, the Ascend P2, will have a 4.7 inch screen. Yu said it will be available in the April to June time frame for about $525 without a contract. It's the "fastest" because it supports faster download speeds than other phones. However, today's wireless networks aren't equipped to supply those speeds.

Huawei Technologies Ltd. was the world's third largest seller of smartphones, after Samsung and Apple, in the fourth quarter of last year, according to research firm IDC. That's despite selling very few phones in the U.S., where the big phone companies mostly ignore it. It has a much better position in Europe, where cellphone companies have embraced its network equipment, and France's Orange is committed to selling the phone.

In the U.S., a congressional panel recommended in October that phone carriers avoid doing business with Huawei or its smaller Chinese rival, ZTE Corp., for fear that its network equipment could contain "back doors" that enable access to communications from outside. The Chinese government rejected the report as false and an effort to block Chinese companies from the U.S. market.

Meanwhile, a report by a private U.S. cybersecurity firm concluded recently that a special unit of China's military is responsible for sustained cyberespionage against U.S. companies and government agencies. China has denied involvement in the attacks in which massive amounts of data and corporate trade secrets, likely worth hundreds of millions of dollars, were stolen.

"It has not been an easy journey for us," Huawei's global brand director, Amy Lou, said Sunday of the company's quest to become globally recognized and trusted. She called the company "a great consumer brand in the making."

The world's largest cellphone trade show, Mobile World Congress, opens Monday in Barcelona.