Nokia just announced on its Conversations blog that it is moving away from organizing one major annual event to organizing more than one “smaller, more intimate events” over the course of the year.

Each of these smaller events will be ‘tailored to a specific audience’, Nokia says.

“Think less CES, more SXSW,” the company writes. Does that mean more parties?

The smaller events will still be called Nokia World, mind you, but if you’ve already made travel arrangements for a trip to the one in Helsinki at the end of September, you’re going to want to cancel them.

Nokia has moved the date of the (first smaller) Nokia World event in the Finnish capital from 25-26 September (as previously communicated) to 5-6 September.

Furthermore, the event is now decidedly invitation-only, and the specific audience in this case is apparently ‘operator and retail partners’.

In the comments to the post on the Conversations blog, Nokia’s Heidi Lemmetyinen says “other Nokia activities for the media and bloggers will be announced in the coming weeks and months”.

Arranged since 2006, Nokia World used to bring together thousands of visitors, including journalists, analysts, carriers, developers, partners and Nokia employees.

The last big Nokia World was held in London in October 2011, where the Finnish phone maker first introduced the Asha line of handsets and the Windows Phone-powered Lumia 710 and 800 smartphones with some fanfare.

We’ve contacted Nokia to ask for more details about the format and timing changes.

Nokia this morning introduced two new low-cost phones, the Nokia 110 and Nokia 112, in an effort to appeal to “young, urban consumers” who can’t really afford high-end smartphones. See product videos and pictures below.

The phones, which are priced 35 euros (roughly $45) and 38 euros (nearly $50) respectively, come with a 1.8″ display, a 0.3 megapixels VGA camera, support for up to 32GB of external memory and Bluetooth, and dual SIM capability.

The Nokia 110 will also be available as single-SIM versions, dubbed Nokia 111 and Nokia 113, with this last one available in Europe and Eurasia only.

The devices run Nokia’s S40 OS and come with a custom Internet browser (aptly named Nokia Browser) that can compress websites much like Opera’s mobile browser can. Both are available in 4 different colors.

Designed and priced to lure in the ‘next billion’, as Nokia likes to call its target audience for feature phones, the Nokia 110 and Nokia 112 enable users to communicate across Facebook, Twitter and other social networks. The latter device even comes with eBuddy‘s IM software installed out of the box.

In the coming months, Nokia says both phones will bring 40 EA games like Tetris, Bejeweled and Need for Speed for free (the company says the value is 75 euros).

So how are the Nokia 110 and Nokia 112 different from each other? Well, Nokia points out that the designs are slightly different and that the Nokia 110 offers about 10.5 hours of talk time from a charged battery, while the Nokia 112 offers 14 hours.

Both phones are expected to start shipping in the third quarter of 2012.

The Nokia 110

The Nokia 112

Troubled Finnish phone maker Nokia saw its stock price take an unusually steep nosedive this morning on market open, dropping about 6.3 percent to 2.35 euros.

Earlier this morning, it even hit an all-time low of 2.34 euros per share.

Yup, Nokia’s definitely no longer the most valuable Finnish company.

As pointed out by Yle.fi, Nokia’s stock price is down 37.5 percent since the beginning of the year, and down almost 61 percent in the last year.

Its current market capitalization hovers around 8.8 billion euros.

Along with high-ranking executives Stephen Elop (CEO) and Timo Ihamuotila (CFO), the company was recently slammed with a class action lawsuit filed by an angry shareholder, who claims they willfully misled and defrauded shareholders by making false statements about a potential Windows Phone fueled turn-around that never came. Nokia’s new chairman sees no need for immediate changes.

Nokia, which just filed patents lawsuits against rivals HTC, RIM and Viewsonic over 45 of its patents in the US and Germany, plans to debut a new series of tablet computers and “hybrid” mobile devices this year in hopes of a comeback.

Good luck with that. No matter what it does, Nokia will still find giants like Apple, Samsung and other rivals trying to stop it from turning this particular ship around.

Here’s a chart for the quarterly evolution of Nokia’s stock price in the last 5 years:

Earlier today we ran a story – as did many, many other publications – about Apple’s iPhone 4S-only service Siri recommending people to buy the Nokia Lumia 900 when asking what the ‘best smartphone ever’ is. OMG, right?

Siri bases its answer on search engine Wolfram Alpha for the most part, which itself draws from a limited set of data and just a handful of user reviews, so of course it wasn’t really a decent answer to the question.

Not that it stopped Microsoft from mentioning it on the Windows Phone blog …

But, as others have pointed out (hi MG!), it doesn’t really mean anything.

It was funny, though. Wanna know what else is funny?

When you ask the Nokia Lumia 800 in my case what the best smartphone ever is – thus using Microsoft’s TellMe service in combination with Bing – the first result you will get is this Business Insider article with the following headline:

Yes, The iPhone Is Still The Best Smartphone You Can Buy.

Ha. Thanks for clearing that one up for us, Lumia.

Now please, everyone, get back to work, or to enjoying your weekend.

(Hat tip goes to Bloomberg News’ Alex Sherman, who pointed this out to me).

When you break out your iPhone 4S and ask Siri what the ‘best smartphone ever’ is, your humble virtual assistant will recommend you to buy Nokia’s Lumia 900.

Which is, of course, a decent phone indeed.

But really, an iPhone 4S-only service prompting you to check out a rival device when you ask it what the best handset is?

Siri’s amusing recommendation is drawing comments from hosts of Nokia and Microsoft fans worldwide (yes, there are still many of them), which in itself is rather amusing. It’s kinda like watching people cheer because the magical mirror told the queen that Snow White is actually the fairest of them all.

Hopefully needless to say, the reason why Siri is making the above recommendation isn’t because Apple thinks the iPhone 4S is subpar (as if).

It’s simply because Siri bases its answer to that particular question on results from Wolfram Alpha, which itself draws from users reviews Web-wide.

User satisfaction rates for the Lumia 900 in the United States happen to be very high, hence why WA will tell you that it’s the ‘best smartphone ever’.

Our recommendation is: give both the iPhone 4S and the Nokia Lumia 900 a whirl and decide for your damn self instead of asking Siri.

Nokia has just sent out an email to users of location-based social network Plazes – though I can’t imagine there were many users still using it – to inform them that the service will be shut down as soon as next week.

Plazes allowed users to post their location and activities, and share this information with other Plazes users via the Web or smartphones.

Plazes was originally co-founded in 2004 by German entrepreneurs Felix Petersen (currently founding CEO of mobile app startup Amen) and Stefan Kellner (now founder of photo sharing service 7Moments).

It attracted investments from angel investors Marc Andreessen, Esther Dyson and Martin Varsavsky, and VC firm Doughty Hanson, before its exit to Nokia.

Nokia acquired the German startup behind Plazes back in June 2008 for an undisclosed sum. The Finnish company will be moving everything over to its Maps service as of next week, and will soon after give remaining users the ability to sync their Plazes favorites with Nokia Maps from their phones.

Here’s the email that was sent to users:

“Thanks for being part of Plazes. We hope you enjoyed the journey, past or present.

The time has come to say farewell, and next week, Plazes will go out of service.

From next week, you can go to Plazes.com and move your history to Nokia Maps. Your plazes will become favourites on Nokia Maps for your PC or Mac. Shortly after next week, you’ll also be able to sync your favourites with Nokia Maps on your phone.

If you like, you’ll also be able to download and save a history file containing all your activities and plazes.

With Nokia Maps, you can search for interesting places and find your way there with walking, driving and public transport directions. And if you find somewhere new on your travels, you can add it to the map, write reviews, post a rating and add photos.

If you have any questions, please contact Nokia Support.

Kind regards

Your Plazes Team”

Troubled Finnish phone giant Nokia is increasingly troubled, unicorns be damned.

The latest bad news for the phone maker: along with high-ranking executives Stephen Elop (CEO) and Timo Ihamuotila (CFO), the company has been hit with a class action lawsuit filed by an angry shareholder (IntoMobile also picked up on it).

Update: Nokia has (not really) responded to the filing.

Nokia’s fall from grace has been well documented, but plaintiff Robert Chmielinski claims the company and the aforementioned executives willfully misled and defrauded shareholders between October 2011 and April 2012 by making false statements about a potential turn-around thanks to strong Lumia sales.

The switch to the Windows Phone platform did nothing to stop Nokia’s position in the smartphone market from deteriorating, says Chmielinski, and this ultimately led to significant economic losses for thousands of Nokia shareholders.

They have pitchforks, and they’re not afraid to use them.

The money quote from the complaint, which is embedded at the foot of the post:

Nokia provides telecommunications infrastructure hardware, software, and services worldwide. During the Class Period, defendants told investors that Nokia’s conversion to a Windows platform would halt its deteriorating position in the smartphone market. It did not.

This became apparent on April 11, 2012, when Nokia disclosed that its first quarter performance would be worse than expected. Nokia expected its first quarter 2012 non-IFRS Devices & Services operating margin to fall by 3%, and projected first quarter 2012 Devices & Services net sales of €4.2 billion.

It also disclosed a glitch in its newest Windows offering – the Lumia 900. Nokia had to immediately offer customers an automatic $100, making the phone essentially free.

As a result of this disclosure, the price of Nokia’s American Depositary Shares (“ADRs”) dropped over 16% in a single day.

And the actual gist of Chmielinski’s complaint:

During the Class Period, defendants had both the motive and opportunity to conduct fraud. They also had actual knowledge of the misleading nature of the statements they made or acted in reckless disregard of the true information known to them at the time.

In so doing, the defendants participated in a scheme to defraud and committed acts, practices and participated in a course of business that operated as a fraud or deceit on purchasers of Nokia securities during the Class Period.

Chmielinski digs up quotes from press releases and conference talks to make his case, and then tears them by adding that the statements were “materially false and misleading because Nokia’s migration to a Windows platform was not going as well as represented”. The plaintiff also claims Nokia, Elop and Ihamuotila “engaged in a scheme to deceive the market”.

Ouch. Again.

Nokia investors have seen the value of their holding drop about 90 percent in less than five years, and the outlook for the future looks equally bleak.

Nokia, which just filed patents lawsuits against rivals HTC, RIM and Viewsonic over 45 of its patents in the US and Germany, plans to debut a new series of tablet computers and “hybrid” smart mobile devices this year to help with the turn-around.

Troubled Finnish phone maker Nokia is – still – troubled.

No need for a strategy change though, incoming Nokia chairman Risto Siilasmaa told reporters this morning. He said Nokia’s current plans will succeed and that he will foster an “entrepreneurial spirit” and that legions of unicorns are currently flying in to Helsinki in an effort to turn the company around and to appease investors.

Ok, he didn’t really say that last thing, although he came dangerously close: he mentioned something about relying on Nokia’s ‘Finnishness’ to whither the Apple and Android storms, potentially suggesting that there was no – or insufficient – Finnishness within Nokia Oy in the past few years.

Nokia investors have seen the value of their holding drop about 90 percent in less than five years, and the outlook for the future looks equally bleak.

“Nokia is going through a very difficult period for us as shareholders, as employees and as Finns, but I am certain we have the right team, the right strategy and increasingly the right products to emerge as a very successful company,” Siilasmaa told reporters at a press briefing prior to Nokia’s annual general meeting.

Who is this Siilasmaa dude, you ask? Well, he’s the founder of security software company F-Secure and is replacing Jorma Ollila as Nokia’s chairman starting today, ending the latter’s 13-year reign. He has been on Nokia’s board since 2008.

To be fair, his statement about Nokia not needing changes at this moment is understandable when you consider that the company is smack in the middle of an enormous transformation already. If it will be a successful transition that can lead to Nokia’s recovery, however, remains to be seen. It has banked heavily on the success of the Lumia smartphone line, but even CEO Stephen Elop admitted recently that sales have so far been ‘mixed’ (read: disappointing).

Nokia, which just filed patents lawsuits against rivals HTC, RIM and Viewsonic over 45 of its patents in the US and Germany, plans to debut a new series of tablet computers and “hybrid” smart mobile devices this year to help with the turn-around.

At the time of writing, it was unclear whether the unicorns were briefed on said plans, and if Nokia employees are already stocking up on extra Finnishness.

Troubled Nokia is troubled.

The latest bad news for the Finnish phone maker is that it had to repay New York State $420,000 after breaking a deal to bring hundreds of jobs to Westchester.

Actually, Nokia did bring about 300 jobs to said county after it bought a former IBM building back in 2006, back when things were still going smoothly for the now beleaguered phone giant. The main issue is that it couldn’t keep the jobs there as they’ve left the area.

Nokia originally received a $700,000 “Jobs Now” grant, but the entire amount couldn’t be recouped because the company did technically create jobs for a while.

Worse is that Nokia spent $30 million on the renovation of the building, “stripping the structure down to the steel and rebuilding it as a modern glass-enclosed office building” according to Lohud.com.

The fancy building was vacated in March 2012.

With over $110 billion in cash, the Cupertino giant could theoretically buy three major rivals and still have change left to go shopping for a new handbag or two.

We know that’s not how it actually works, but it helps to put the size of Apple’s gargantuan amount of cash into some perspective.

Apple could (again, theoretically) pick up all of Amazon, Nokia and Research In Motion with its mountain of cash, looking at current market capitalizations.

Amazon.com = market cap of $86.6 billion
Nokia = market cap of $13.59 billion
Research In Motion = market cap of $6.85 billion

That totals roughly $107 billion, still $3 billion short of the cash Apple currently has on hand (its market cap is roughly $522 billion). How mind-blowing is that?

Wait a few days, and maybe they’ll be able to bail out Netflix while they’re at it, too.

Also read:

Apple announces dividend plans and $10 billion share buyback, will spend $45 billion in three years

Apple’s lesson: Domestic cash is nimble, foreign cash is expensive