When Apple beat Nokia’s profits earlier this year selling just one smartphone it sent a very clear message. Nokia has decided to focus its smartphone offering for 2010, cutting back from the 20 sets it released this year to just ten for next. It’s an interesting move, and something that could definitely turn things around for the handset maker.

“We see … really fierce competition certainly in the high end, but we also see it in the mid to low end of smartphones increasing.” That’s from Jo Harlow, the new chief of Nokia’s smartphone unit. She was appointed to the position after Nokia dropped six percentage points of smartphone market share in the September quarter report.

“We will defend our position, but we believe we also have tools to play offense as well as defense.” Phones like the N900 come to mind, which for some reason got a really lackluster release this year. The N97, which is pretty lame by comparison, got all of Nokia’s attention. You might have seen earlier this week that Nokia will only release one Maemo phone next year. That could be a problem, especially as Symbian continues to age.

Source: Reuters