By Reuters

Published: April 25, 2006, 5:01 AM PDT

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Handset giant Nokia, which said Tuesday that it has sold more than 5 million N-series multimedia phones since last year, plans to launch three new models this summer.

Anssi Vanjoki, the head of Nokia`s multimedia unit, said the Finnish company expects the multimedia phone market worldwide to grow to 100 million units in 2006 and exceed 250 million in 2008.

``It is not a small market,`` he said at the launch of the new phones.

Research firm Canalys said about 50 million multimedia phones were sold in 2005, Vanjoki added.

The new N93 video camera model, with optical zoom, and the new N73 camera phone, which has a 3 megapixel Carl Zeiss lens, are both expected to hit the shelves in July. The new N72 music phone is expected to be available in June.

The unsubsidized retail prices will range from about $400 for the N72 to about $680 for the most expensive, the N93, Vanjoki said.

``I think the N72 and N73 will be successful phones that will sell well, but the N93 will be a niche product,`` said Carolina Milanesi, an analyst with market researcher Gartner.

She said that the new N-series devices were bulkier than those of rivals but that through design improvements, they had become small and thin enough to be acceptable.

Nokia reported stronger-than-expected first-quarter sales and earnings last week and singled out the success of its N70 model as its biggest revenue-generating handset in the quarter.

Nokia said the N70 camera phone was the biggest-selling third-generation mobile in the world in the first three months of the year, making up about 10 percent of the 3G market on its own.

Nokia also said it has agreed on cooperation with Yahoo`s popular photo-sharing site Flickr.

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