HELSINKI, Finland—Nokia began shipping its GPRS phones in Europe on Sept. 28, barely making the third-quarter deadline it had set for itself for commercially offering GPRS handsets. Competing handset vendors Motorola and Ericsson already have several GPRS models on the European market.
According to international press reports, Nokia delivered the first units to retailers on Sept. 28, but did not specify which countries, other than Finland, had received the 8310 phones. Nokia also did not specific the number of units shipped.
Many industry experts have blamed the slow uptake of GPRS services in Europe on the lack of availability of the No. 1 phone vendor’s GPRS handsets.
Nokia’s GPRS handset offering comes as sales of cellular phones in Finland and other European countries have sharply declined. Reuters reported handset sales to retailers in Finland dropped 54 percent in September. In addition, Vodafone said the number of third-quarter new customers signing up for its services declined for the third time this year.
