Nokia Corp. on Friday said that it is now more confident in launch of its first smartphone based on Windows Phone 7.5 “Mango” operating system this year. Previously, the company was cautious about the launch of the device in calendar 2011 and initially even pointed to 2012 release of the handset.

"As we stated previously, we have increased confidence we will ship our first Windows Phone product this year," said Nokia spokesman Doug Dawson, reports Reuters news-agency.

Back in June Nokia showcased its first smartphone based on Microsoft Windows Phone operating system. The phone looks like the recently announced MeeGo-based N9, but has a number of peculiarities. Based on the “screenshots” that were made public by a web-site, the home screen of Nokia WP7 first-gen phone includes phone, messaging, e-mail, browser, Xbox live and two other features. This indicates clearly that Nokia did not customize its first WP smartphone to differentiate itself from other manufacturers.

In fact, nothing particular is known about the first Nokia WP7-based device. But here is what we know: the code-named Sea Ray product looks like the N9, hence, it sports the same design and 854*480 resolution screen (something not confirmed, but something that is logical given the fact that WP does not seem to require high resolution). It is unknown what is inside and whether it sports morally outdated ARM Cortex-A8-based Texas Instruments OMAP3630 or something from Qualcomm. There are dissimilarities, though: the LED flash is placed differently on the backside of the product.

 It remains to be seen how competitive will be Nokia’s first Windows Phone-based smartphone against Apple’s next-generation iPhone as well as flagship Google Android-based handsets, such as Samsung Electronics’ Galaxy SII. Nokia’s current Symbian-based smartphones are rapidly losing popularity mainly because the company itself said that it would discontinue the platform. However, given the fact that that the company’s current flagship N9 smartphone barely matches iPhone 4 in terms of hardware capabilities, it is unlikely that the Windows Phone 7.5 “Mango”-powered model will match next-generation iPhone or its rivals from the Android camp.

While in the mobile world hardware specs do not determine actual general user experience, they enable certain level of comfortable functionality, which means that without appropriate hardware it is impossible to comfortably use certain software. In general, this means that phone makers omit certain functionality on certain models.

For Nokia it is crucially important to ensure that its first Windows Phone-based cell phone is the best WP-powered device that exists and also provide a model that is competitive against rival platforms, namely Android and iOS.

Tags: Nokia, Windows Phone, Apple, Symbian, Samsung, iOS, Android