Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo has stated that the imminent arrival of the company’s new flagship handset, the Nokia N8 will become its saviour and reaffirm Nokia as a major player in the smartphone market.

Kallasvuo’s claims follow the announcement of Nokia’s figures for the second quarter of 2010. Despite recording increased handset sales from the same period of 2009, the Finnish manufacturer saw overall profits drop 40 per cent. Not deterred by these negative figures, Kallasvuo said: "We are approaching the end of this painful product transition at the high end of our product portfolio,"

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The first handset to support the new Symbian 3 operating system, the Nokia N8 is holding the fortunes of the company’s future reputation in the increasingly competitive smartphone market. However, Nokia’s CEO believes this introduction of Symbian 3 will fix the issues that have deterred many consumers from existing Symbian handsets stating: "Delivering the N8, with a high-quality user experience, will mark the beginning of our renewal. We will achieve our potential and regain high-end leadership in our industry."

Although the Nokia N8 has already been pushed back from a Q2 to a Q3 release, something Kullasvuo pins on Nokia’s determination to offer the best possible product, the Finnish CEO insists the Symbian 3 OS will take off with 50 million handsets running the new operating system predicted to be shipped.

Whilst an exact UK release date for the Nokia N8 has yet to be announced, its arrival as a ‘coming soon’ handset with a number of network providers and delivery dates rumoured to be within the next two or three week, its arrival on UK shelves is expected in the near future.

For all the latest on the Nokia 8 and the Symbian 3 operating system follow the T3 Twitter and Facebook feeds.