STUTTGART, GERMANY - NOKIA has bolstered its smartphone line-up to compete better with Apple and said a US$820 (S$1,180) netbook will lead its foray into the fiercely competitive PC market.

The new handsets, including its first phone using Linux software, are the latest moves by the Finnish firm to match Apple's innovation in a sector that is switching focus to services and software.

The top-end N900 phone will sell for 500 euros (S$1,030). This offering, however, worries investors as the company has rapidly lost market share in the most profitable part of the industry to Apple and RIM.

Nokia also announced further details of its new Booklet 3G, its first netbook.

However, analysts worried that entering the PC industry, where margins are traditionally razor thin, could further depress earnings, a result of a slump in handset demand over the last few quarters.

But Gartner analyst Carolina Milanesi said Nokia had no choice. "You see more and more PC guys getting into the mobile operators' shelves. It's kind of a counterattack, it's not just defensive," she said.

Mr John Hwang, the head of Nokia's laptop business, said the company aims to bundle laptops with Nokia's new Internet services to compete better with rivals offering just hardware.

In the laptop business, Nokia will face new rivals like HP, Dell and Acer, and some commentators say the market could be too tough to crack.

Nokia has also announced a new Lifecasting service - following its similar Lifeblog and LifeviNe services - that will link Nokia phones' location and media data to Facebook, and allow people to update their location and status directly via a Nokia Ovi account.