Nokia launches 3 phones for the CDMA standard

HELSINKI (Reuters) - The world's largest mobile phone maker Nokia launched three new CDMA phones on Wednesday and said it remained committed to the standard, which has long been overshadowed by the more global GSM.

The Nokia 1506 is expected to go on sale in China at the end of 2009, while the Nokia 6316s and the Nokia 3806 are expected to hit the market in the first quarter of 2010, the Finnish company said.

CDMA, or code division multiple access, is popular in certain markets such as the U.S. and South Korea. It had 500 million subscribers at the end of June, according to the CDMA Development Group (www.cdg.org).

GSM, or Global System for Mobile Communications, is the more global standard, with around 3.45 billion subscribers at the end of the second quarter, according to the GSM Association (www.gsmworld.com).