With increasing competition and dwindling sales figures, Nokia has in recent times been searching for segments in which to focus its resources in India.

A top Nokia executive recently defined the company’s focus areas as the less than-Rs 6,000 handsets with S40 being the desired platform and internet connectivity an important feature.

More detailed strategy emerged when Steven Elop, the chief executive officer of Nokia, visited India recently.

One thing is clear: that India is a market for Dual-SIM devices and Nokia cannot ignore this. And the reason of this focus is very clear: the six or seven dual SIM phones that Nokia has launched in India so far have been fairly successful.

“All our dual SIM launches are doing well and we are witnessing rocketing sales. These launches have also had a halo effect on our single-SIM phones. India has shown that brand plus team plus great execution can deliver strong results,” Elop told a media gathering.

Elop attributed the success of Nokia in the dual SIM category to easy swap technology, which allows the phones to remember up to five different SIM cards and users don’t even need to pull the battery out or put the device off to switch SIMs. Also, the success of these phones has had to do with Nokia’s wide distribution network in India.

Elop clarified the Indian strategy for smartphones and stressed on the need to be present at all the price points of the smartphone market and especially at the lower end of the spectrum. This clearly means that Nokia will look at making cheaper Windows Phone 7 devices, but till then lower end smartphones from the company will be based on Symbian, which Elop has decided to make significant investment in till 2015.

Elop said, “We are all part of this group that is interested and all willing to spend a lot of money. But frankly from an economic perspective, part of the race that we will see in the Indian phone market is the extent to which you can get broader coverage of price points&#151to the extent that if you can get that lower-cost smartphone that meets the aspirations of an individual while at the same time keeping the price well down.”

Jasmeet Gandhi, head of services marketing and devices, Nokia India, had said last week that Nokia will restrict its use of Windows Phone 7 and developer ecosystem for feature rich smartphones for now.

Gandhi also added, “The low-end phones, which are priced below Rs 6,000, would have S40 (Series 40) platform to let users access web-based applications. It will be our focus area for some time to come.”

This would leave a big gap in Nokia’s portfolio, which can only be filled by Symbian devices. Symbian has already seen two major updates in the past two months in the form of Anna and Belle.

Elop did not, however, share the tablet roadmap for Nokia but did hint that the company is interested in the segment. However, Nokia’s strategy could be different when it comes to bigger devices. As he said, “We do believe that peoples’ expectations are that they have a digital experience that crosses different environments&#151 smartphone, tablets, televisions, set-top-boxes, gaming platforms, and in some markets a PC is very important.”

Could this mean Nokia will have something of a converged form of all these devices? Only time will tell, as Elop didn’t.

LG is set to launch a new handset under its Optimus series. The device will have a slide out keyboard and a dual core processor, a Korean website reported.

The handset, named LG Optimus Note, will have Android 2.3.4 Gingerbread operating system with a 1.2 GHz Nvidia Tegra 2 processor. According to the report it has a Nova LCD Display with 800 x 480 pixel (WVGA) resolution, HDMI support, Bluetooth 3.0, and a QWERTY keyboard as well.

LG Optimus Note will also feature a 5 Megapixel camera on the back and a VGA front facing camera.

It is likely to be released in South Korea first, followed by releases in other parts of the world. However, LG is yet to issue a statement on this.

Mobile phone manufacturer iBall is set to bring a range of handsets to the Indian market, including an Android 2.2 based smartphone with a 3.2 inch capacitive touchscreen, in the next three months.

Speaking exclusively to The Mobile Indian, Sandeep Parasrampuria, the director of iBall, said, “We will be launching an Android smartphone shortly. We will also launch a long battery life feature phone that offers close to 20 hours of talk time, by the end of this month.”

He added, “We are also planning to launch a 3G feature phone with video calling facility next month. We have a big road-map for devices which include very innovative products ranging from smartphones, tablets and feature phones. We are sure to surprise people with our products.”

He, however, did not disclose how much these phones would cost, but going by the features of the device it seems that the Android smartphone will be very similar to Micromax A70 and Spice Mi310, so it is expected to cost around Rs 7,000. Going by iBall’s track record, there might be some unique features in the phone as well.

iBall, which launched a 7 inch Android tablet on Thursday, September 8, also has a range of feature phones for various segments. For instance the iBall Senior was meant for senior citizens, and the company similarly launched phones for army personnel as well.

“Continuing on similar lines, iBall will launch a well thought out device for each consumer segment, and surprise people,” Sandeep told The Mobile Indian.

On the lines of INQ, HTC and Vodafone, Motorola is set to launch a brand new Facebook mobile phone. Just like the HTC ChaCha and Vodafone 555 Blue, the Motorola handset too will come with a QWERTY keyboard bearing a dedicated Facebook button and obviously an operating system with Facebook deeply integrated.

Details of the Motorola EX225 came to light when the Bluetooth.org published details of the handset on its website.

As per the details mentioned on the website, Motorola EX225 will carry a 2.4-inch TFT display which is as much as any mid-level BlackBerry handset. Form factor appears similar to a mash-up of Motorola Charm and Motorola Droid Pro.

Featuring a full Qwerty keypad, the EX225 will have a dedicated Facebook key for the Facebook user interface deeply integrated in the operating system &#151 most likely to be Android 2.2 Froyo.

This handset has 3 Megapixel camera which is quite decent for an entry level device. Apparently, this will be the second ‘Facebook phone’ to support 3G networks and will come in single SIM or dual SIM models for different regions.

Motorola EX225 will be released for Asia, Africa, Australia, Europe, North America and South America but there is no detail on the date. Considering the Bluetooth certification, we can expect this handset to be showcased at the ‘CTIA: Enterprise and Applications’ event starting October 11 in San Diego, USA.

Motorola is second major handset maker to get into the ‘Facebook phone’ whirlwind and shell out a Facebook-integrated handset. We won’t be surprised if Nokia too comes out with a Facebook phone considering its close ties with Microsoft which has good stake in Facebook.