John Paczkowski

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Nokia: 2010 Will Be Better–We Promise

giantnokia-150x150A bit of good news for Nokia in its seemingly endless parade of bad. The company said today that it expects handset industry volumes to rise 10 percent in 2010 from 2009 as the market rebounds from the econalypse.

“Going into 2010, the overall mobile devices market is stabilizing and it is growing more in the areas where Nokia has competitive advantages,” CFO Timo Ihamuotila said during the company’s Capital Markets Day event today.

And while the company expects its mobile device volume share to be flat in 2010 compared with 2009, it also expects to increase its “mobile device value market share” a bit.

Of course, to do that, Nokia (NOK) needs a device that can compete with the likes of Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone, and its recent efforts–the N97, for example–have fallen far short of that goal.

“Last year’s N97 flagship was an exercise in how not to create a touchscreen phone, complete with an odd three row keyboard featuring a space bar mysteriously moved right of center,” says technology strategist Michael Gartenberg.

“The N900 feels more like a science experiment to me,” Gartenberg observes,” than a product that’s designed for mainstream users….I used to feel Nokia’s hardware designs defined cool, but these days they just remind me of an aging movie starlet trying to re-capture some former beauty.”

2010 will be different, though. At least according to Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo. “I see great opportunity for Nokia to capture new growth in our industry,” he said. “We have measures in place to push smart phones down to new price points globally, while growing margins….We have three targets for 2010: execution, execution, execution.”

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Another gadget you don’t really need. Will not work once you get it home. New model out in 4 weeks. Battery life is too short to be of any use.

— From the fact sheet for a fake product entitled Useless Plasticbox 1.2 (an actual empty plastic box) placed in L.A.-area Best Buy stores by an artist called Plastic Jesus