Nokia has unveiled a raft of new smartphones as part of its ongoing efforts to snatch back a significant chunk of the burgeoning smartphone market.

Nokia could certainly stand to grab a bigger share of the smartphone market

Nokia might well be the most popular mobile phone manufacturer on the planet, but the fact is that in the smartphone market, things have been less than sterling for the Finnish mobile giant. Indeed, things have been looking grim for Nokia since around ten months ago, when the company revealed that it had seen profits fall by nearly 50% over the previous twelve months. Now though, it seems that Nokia is attempting to rally, reaching for a share of the smartphone market that might be at least a little more in line with that of its feature phones.

Curiously enough, The Hindu reports that Nokia is targeting the Asia-Pacific region specifically with its latest release, the N8. As had been rumoured before, the N8 will launch running Nokia’s latest version of its own mobile operating system, Symbian 3. We’re told that the device will be made available globally from September, at the relatively affordable price of €370.

Of course, the big question will be whether or not customers take a fancy to the idea of a Nokia smartphone. Nokia’s history with smartphones is a little hit and miss, and seems largely dependent on how well carriers have handled the devices in different regions.

Much will depend on how well Symbian 3 is received. Given the fact that both Android and Apple’s newly renamed iOS have been gathering momentum, it’ll be very interesting to see a new competitor in the smartphone OS segment, especially considering the fact that HP will soon be pushing devices with Palm’s Web OS. If nothing else, 2011 should be an interesting year for mobile kit.