Nokia Unveils Low-Priced Phones

BARCELONA — Nokia on Monday introduced two new low-priced basic cellphones, plus two lower-priced versions of its flagship Lumia Windows smartphone — part of an effort by the former market leader to compete amid an intensifying price war in handsets.

The four new phones — the Lumia 720, Lumia 520, Nokia 301 and Nokia 105 — will help Nokia maintain and perhaps build on its position as the No. 2 maker of cellphones worldwide behind Samsung and fend off challenges by two Chinese manufacturers, Huawei and ZTE, analysts said.

The Lumia 520, selling for €139, or about $183, in Europe and $179 in the United States, is priced 25 percent less lower Nokia’s least-expensive smartphone, the Lumia 620.

“I think that with the Lumia 520, Nokia is really going to take the Windows 8 operating system to a much bigger, mass market,” said Pete Cunningham, an analyst at Canalys, a research firm in Reading, England. “I would expect their volumes of Lumia shipments to now start increasing slowly, but they still have a way to go.”

Samsung overtook Nokia last year as the leading global maker of cellphones, amassing a 23 percent market share. Nokia’s market share slipped to 17.9 percent from 24 percent during 2012, according to the market research firm IDC. Apple ended the year in third place at 9.9 percent, followed by ZTE, with 3.6 percent, and Huawei, with 3.3 percent.

The new handsets, which the company unveiled at the Mobile World Congress industry convention in Barcelona, reinforced Nokia’s strategy of targeting the least-expensive but fastest-growing parts of the market. The Nokia 105, the company’s new basic, entry-level phone, will sell for €15 — less than the price of a pizza in some countries.

T-Mobile U.S.A. has agreed to sell the Lumia 520, a 3G phone with a 4-inch touchscreen, in the United States starting in the second quarter, Nokia said.

In 2012, the global market for cellphones that cost $250 or less grew by 99 percent from its level in 2011, and accounted for more than half of all cellphones sold worldwide, according to IDC. The upper-end segment of smartphones costing more than $250 grew by only 23 percent during the same period.

“Nokia is targeting the right end of the market with new, inexpensive phones,” said Francisco Jeronimo, an analyst with IDC in London. “This is where the growth is.”

Nokia, the global market leader in smartphones as late as 2007 before Apple produced its first iPhone, trailed the likes of Blackberry, LG and Motorola with a roughly 4 percent market share in the fourth quarter, according to IDC. Huawei and ZTE, the No. 3 and No. 5, each sold more than twice as many smartphones as Nokia.

This year for the first time, more consumers around the world will buy a smartphone than a simple, basic cellphone, according to IDC.

Stephen Elop, the Nokia chief executive, said the new, lower-priced Lumia handsets would give the company a full array of smartphones it had been lacking.

“These are less-expensive devices, but they will move in much larger volumes,” Mr. Elop, a former Microsoft executive, said during an interview.

Mr. Elop said Nokia was committed to making some of Lumia’s unique features, such as digital lenses that allow users to enhance their own photos, available throughout the entire Lumia lineup, instead of reserving the most advanced features for the most expensive handsets.

The Nokia-Microsoft alliance that was announced two years ago in February 2011, Mr. Elop said, is gaining momentum. He dismissed the possibility that the company would eventually abandon its software partnership with Microsoft for another operating system, such as the Android system made by Google.

“There’s no doubt in my mind that that was the right decision” to choose Microsoft, Mr. Elop said. The alliance with the world’s largest software maker has set Nokia apart from handset makers relying on Android, Mr. Elop said, preserving an identify and edge for Nokia and its products.

With the Lumia line of smartphones expanding, Nokia can begin to sell Microsoft phones increasingly to businesses, which may already be reliant on Microsoft Windows and e-mail services in their operations, Mr. Elop said.

“Being able to bring those all together I think is a very powerful force,” he said. “And it’s something that’s just beginning.”

Nokia sold 4.4 million Lumia smartphones in the fourth quarter, up from 2.9 million in the third quarter. Mr. Elop declined to say how sales of Lumia had develpoped in the first two months of the year. But he suggested that the three new handsets introduced over the last three months would help sustain sales momentum.

The Lumia 920, 820 and 620 are new devices that will translate into new sales, he said. “All of those things will contribute to what we hope to see in the future,” he said.

In the fourth quarter, Nokia generated an profit of €202 million, compared with a loss of €1.1 billion a year earlier.

The Nokia 301, a mid-range feature phone, will be introduced in the second quarter and sell for €65. The 3G handset can display streaming video and comes with a 3.2 megapixel camera and panoramic, wide-angle lens. The Nokia 105 will eventually replace the entry-level Nokia 1280, which sold more than 100 million units in the past two years.

The Nokia 720, which will be sold initially in Asia and Europe, is a 3G handset targeting social media users. The phone, which will sell for €249, comes with 8 gigabytes of internal memory and an SD-card slot for additional storage. China Mobile has agreed to sell the handset in China starting in the second quarter, Nokia said.

DealBook: In Apple Fight, Einhorn Unveils ‘iPrefs’

4:30 p.m. | Updated Apple Inc. has introduced more innovative consumer products than perhaps any other company has in the last decade: the iPod, the iPhone, the iPad.

Eduardo Munoz/ReutersDavid Einhorn, president

Now the hedge fund manager David Einhorn wants the company to roll out what he calls iPrefs, which he says could produce $61 a share in additional benefits for investors.

It’s a cutesy name for the class of perpetual preferred shares that Mr. Einhorn has called on the technology giant to roll out as a way to deliver more cash to its shareholders. And for over an hour on Thursday, Mr. Einhorn, the president of the hedge fund Greenlight Capital, patiently walked listeners through his argument about why those securities made the most sense for returning the company’s $137 billion cash hoard to what he said were its rightful owners.

Flipping through a voluminous PowerPoint presentation, Mr. Einhorn argued that his idea bore merit and deserved shareholder support. He also explained how iPrefs work: Apple would issue one preferred share, carrying a quarterly dividend of 50 cents each, for each outstanding common share.

He conceded that the idea was unusual. But he argued that it was a fresh way to reward shareholders while letting Apple hold on to a still-substantial “rainy day” fund.

“We know they embrace innovation and can recognize it when they see it, even if it isn’t the kind of innovation people usually think of when they think of Apple,” Mr. Einhorn said.

“We hope Apple agrees with us when we say that iPrefs are an innovative idea whose time has come,” he added

The conference call came after several current investors in Apple and a former one in Greenlight called on Mr. Einhorn to halt his fight, which has included suing Apple for what the hedge fund manager called an improper bundling of several shareholder initiatives. The proposal on Apple’s proxy includes the elimination of the company’s ability to issue preferred shares without shareholder consent.

The California Public Employees’ Retirement System, the big pension fund, has urged shareholders to support the so-called Proposal 2, arguing that it actually promotes good corporate governance.

“I came off the call deeply puzzled,” Anne Simpson, the pension fund’s director of global governance, told DealBook in an interview after the call. “He finished off by saying you should vote against Proposal 2 to send a message, but he’s in court trying to prevent Proposal 2 from going ahead.

Calpers had been actively soliciting shareholder support for the corporate governance changes since before Mr. Einhorn filed his suit and believes the proposal will pass handily.

Ms. Simpson is undecided about the merits of the hedge fund manager’s idea, but she took issue with the idea of a big, distracting fight with a company that has already said publicly that it was considering the concept.

“This is really about proper conduct,” she said. “I don’t feel happy that activist funds can use disruptive tactics when the company says that they’re listening and willing to meet.”

And Richard Clayton, the research director of the CtW Investment Group, which represents several unions’ pension funds, added, “What we heard on the call was David Einhorn acknowledge that Proposal 2 does advance shareholder rights.”

A Federal District Court judge is weighing issuing a preliminary injunction on Apple’s shareholder vote on Feb. 27, as he prepares a ruling on whether Apple violated securities rules. The judge, Richard J. Sullivan, has indicated that Mr. Einhorn’s lawsuit appears likely to succeed as a matter of law.

David Einhorns Apple Inc. iPrefs Presentation by

State of the Art: Microsoft Unveils the Surface, Its First Tablet - Review

That’s the sort of choice Microsoft is asking you to make with the spectacularly designed, wildly controversial Surface tablet.

Now, for the very first tablet it has ever manufactured (in fact, its very first computer), Microsoft could have just made another iPad ripoff. But it aimed much higher. It wanted to build a tablet that’s just as good at creating work as it is at organizing it.

On the hardware front, Microsoft has succeeded brilliantly. Read the specs and try not to drool on your keyboard.

The Surface shares some measurements with the full-size iPad (1.5 pounds, 0.4 inches thick). But at 10.8 by 6.7 inches, it’s a wider, thinner rectangle, a better fit for movie playback. It has stereo speakers instead of mono. Both front and back video cameras are 720p high definition.

It has ports and jacks that iPad owners can only dream about: a memory-card slot to expand the storage, a video output jack and a USB 2.0 jack. You can connect almost any USB device: keyboard, mouse, flash drive, speakers, hard drive and so on.

Each Surface model has double the storage of the same-price iPad. For example, the $500 Surface offers 32 gigabytes; the 64-gig Surface is $600.

There are some disappointments on the spec sheet. The battery life is advertised as eight to 10 hours, less than the iPad. There’s no cellular version; it’s Wi-Fi only. The screen is very sharp (1,366 by 768 pixels), but it doesn’t approach the iPad’s Retina screen clarity (2,048 by 1,536 pixels).

And you can charge the Surface only from its wall adapter — not from a computer’s USB jack. Microsoft’s reasoning is that you won’t have a computer to charge from, since your days of carrying both a tablet and a laptop are over. Besides, a wall outlet recharges far faster than USB can.

The front is all touch screen. The edges of the black magnesium body are angled and crisp, like a prop from a Batman movie.

Then there’s the kickstand. The lower half of the back is a hinged panel, held shut magnetically until you pop it out with a fingernail. It snaps to a 22-degree angle, ready to prop the tablet sturdily upright.

A lesser kickstand would add weight, bulk or ugliness. But this one is razor-thin and disappears completely when you’re not using it.

You do use it, though — especially when you flip open the optional keyboard.

Yes, keyboard. You know Apple’s magnetically hinged iPad cover? Microsoft’s Touch Cover is the same idea — same magnet hinge — except that on the inside, there are key shapes, and even a trackpad, formed from slightly raised, fuzzy material. Flip the cover open, flip out the kickstand and boom: you have what amounts to a 1.5-pound PC that sets up anywhere.

This is nothing like those Bluetooth keyboard cases for the iPad. First, the Touch Cover is much, much thinner, 0.13 inches, cardboard thin. Second, it’s not Bluetooth; there’s no setup and no battery hit. The magnet clicks, and keyboard is ready for typing. Third, when you want just a tablet, the keyboard flips around against the back. The Surface automatically disables its keys and displays the on-screen keyboard when it’s time to type.

You can buy this cover, in a choice of colors, with the Surface for $100, or later for $120.

It’s an incredibly slick idea, but the keys don’t move. You’re pounding a flat surface. If you type too fast, the keyboard skips letters. (“If you type 80 words a minute on a keyboard and 20-30 on glass, you should be in the 50s on the Touch Cover,” says a Microsoft representative.)

Bits Blog: Twitter Unveils the Twindex, a New Political Index

screenshot via Twitter

We’ve seen it dozens of times before. The famous scene of a political candidate in a large room, balloons floating and banners strewn about, surrounded by supporters and family, anxiously watching the television as the election results come in.

This year’s election might look a little different. The TV may be blaring results, but the presidential candidates’ staffs may also be following the Twitter Political Index, a new feature that monitors political sentiment on Twitter.

Adam Sharp, head of government, news and social innovation at Twitter, said in a phone interview that the new Twitter Index, or Twindex, monitors hundreds of millions of Twitter messages searching for opinions and views about both 2012 presidential candidates.

The messages are then sorted by what people are saying about President Obama or Mitt Romney, the presumptive Republican nominee, and then creates a poll of those views.

The new site, housed at election.twitter.com, will be updated each day at 8 p.m., Eastern time, to reflect the latest daily views about the candidates.

The Twindex is not meant to replace traditional polls, Mr. Sharp said, but rather to offer an additional, real-time view of the nation’s feelings about candidates as they appear in the news and as voters try to decide which candidate they want to run the country for the next four years.

screenshot via Twitter and TopsyThe Twitter Political Index, as compared to the traditional Gallup Poll.

“We believe the Twitter political index reinforces the transitional models of research,” explained Mr. Sharp. “By providing more signals, more dials — that can agree or disagree — these new technologies give a more complete picture of crafting a political forecast.”

On a company blog post, Twitter said the Twindex was built in partnership with a data analysis team from Topsy, an online search and analytics company, and two polling firms, the Mellman Group and North Star Opinion Research.

Topsy sifts through Twitter messages and uses advanced semantic analysis software to determine if someone is in support of a candidate, or a detractor.

Mr. Sharp said the index had a database of thousand of words to understand if these Twitter messages were for or against a candidate. As these messages are being shared by millions of people on Twitter, the software also takes into account colloquialisms.

Mr. Sharp noted that “bad,” for instance, could mean bad, or it be slang for good. He said that Topsy could differentiate between these words in a sentence and if they are positive or negative.

This is not the first time Twitter has worked on a presidential election Web site.

In 2008, during the last election, the company built a site that corralled all the Twitter messages about the candidates. But things have definitely changed in the last four years. In the last election, Twitter users sent 1.8 million messages on the day of the election. Today, with people sending 400 million messages on a typical day, that represents a little over six minutes of Twitter volume.

Microsoft Unveils Touch-Based Version of Office

SAN FRANCISCO — Microsoft on Monday unveiled a new version of Office, its cash-cow suite of applications, which it has redesigned to take advantage of several of the biggest trends in technology, including touch-based devices, social networking and cloud computing.

At a press event here, Steven A. Ballmer, Microsoft’s chief executive, demonstrated the new software for the first time, describing it as “the most ambitious release of Microsoft Office that we’ve ever done.” Microsoft posted a preview version of the new Office, which includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint and other applications, on the Web.

While Office can run on more traditional computers with mice and keyboards, Microsoft also designed the product so that it can be used on touch-screen devices to compose documents, take notes and work on spreadsheets. The new Office will also allow people to use a stylus to enter data on touch screens.

The new version will automatically upload all Office files to a Microsoft Internet storage service called SkyDrive. This is meant to allow users to more easily work on their Office files regardless of which device they are working on.

Microsoft said it had also integrated the Yammer corporate social networking service into the new Office. Microsoft recently agreed to acquire Yammer in June for $1.2 billion in an effort to better compete with Salesforce.com and other companies that are supplying social networking tools for businesses.

Along with Windows, Office is one of Microsoft’s most important products, accounting for nearly 60 percent of its operating profits in its most recent quarter.