Once the world's biggest maker of mobile phones, the Finnish firm was wrong footed by the rise of smartphones and eclipsed by Apple and Samsung.

The company has already dipped its toe into the consumer market; it has launched an Android tablet, the N1, which went on sale in January in China and days ago unveiled a "virtual-reality camera" - heralding it as the "rebirth of Nokia". It has also launched an Android app called Z Launcher, which organises content on smartphones. Meanwhile its technologies division has advertised on LinkedIn dozens of jobs in California, many in product development, including Android engineers specialising in the operating software Nokia mobile devices will use.

Nokia itself is not giving much away about its preparations, beyond saying some staff at the 600-strong technologies division are working on designs for new consumer products, including phones, as well as in digital video and health.

But it will not be easy to claw its way back to relevance in the fast-changing, competitive mobile business where Apple has been scooping up nearly 90% of industry profits, nor for it to carve out a place in electronics.