Nokia has moved to restructure its lagging smartphone business and streamline operations, laying off 1,800 people even as third-quarter earnings recover from a loss last year. The world's largest mobile phone maker, now under the leadership of new CEO Stephen Elop, reported third-quarter net profit of 529 million euro (£469 million), from a net loss of 559 million euro last year. Net sales in the quarter grew 5% to 10.2 billion euro. Nokia's profits were stronger than expected and its stock closed up 6 per cent at 8.21 euro (£7.28) on the Helsinki Stock Exchange. But its total devices market share fell to 30% in the period - from 34% in 2009 and 33% in the previous quarter. The company said it was cutting jobs, including in corporate functions and research, as it shakes up its Symbian software smartphone business. It is struggling against competition from Apple's iPhone, Research In Motion's Blackberry and Google's Android software. Describing Nokia as a "landscape of unpolished gems," Mr Elop, who took over the helm of the Finnish company on September 21 after his predecessor left, said Nokia's "critical strength is a capacity to innovate". The iPhone has set the standard for smartphones for many design-conscious consumers, while Research In Motion's BlackBerrys have been the favourite of the corporate set. More recently, Google's Android software has emerged as the choice for phone makers that want to challenge the iPhone. Nokia's Symbian operating system is older than Apple's software and wasn't designed from the ground up for touch screen phones. Other manufacturers that used Symbian have mainly jumped ship to Android. But Nokia, which has used Symbian for about a decade, has not lost faith in the software and has upgraded it regularly, most recently in the much-awaited N8 flagship handset. Launched last month, it's aimed at challenging the Blackberry and iPhone, features a 12-megapixel digital camera, a 3.5-inch display and a revamped Symbian 3 software. "N8 is Nokia's first (Symbian) major upgrade for some time. It is an improvement, but it's still a bit behind the iPhone," said Neil Mawston from London-based Strategy Analytics. "Nokia has some pretty bullish growth plans for Symbian over the next couple of years." Source: orange news