Nokia To Halve 2010 Smartphone Range, Make Cheaper S60 Phones

Nokia's plans for the coming year have slowly been filtering out of the company's Capital Markets event earlier this week, and while they're predicting significant growth in the use of both Maemo and S60, they're also cutting back on sheer number of models.  Citing "unnecessary differentiation" that could potentially confuse customers, Nokia plans to halve their smartphone range in 2010 according to Antti Vasara, head of smartphones R&D at the firm.

At the same time, Nokia plans to push smartphone functionality in the mid- to low-end market, likely leveraging their S60 platform on devices that more traditionally might have used S40.  That will allow them to maintain lower prices than competitors while still offering more advanced feature sets.

"We see ... really fierce competition certainly in the high end, but we also see it in the mid to low end of smartphones increasing. We will defend our position, but we believe we also have tools to play offence as well as defence" Jo Harlow, smartphone unit chief, Nokia

Reception to the news has been mixed, with analysts welcoming a more focused Nokia range but cautious that one of the company's advantages – breadth of offerings – might be weakened in the process.  Nokia have said they will significantly overhaul the S60 UI in 2010, as well as release two "major product milestones".

[via GigaOM]