In a bid to regain lost ground, and respect, in the cutthroat race to become the smartest seller of Smartphones, Nokia promised to grab on to its top position on Monday, at its annual Asian trade event in Singapore. Evidently, the ongoing attempts by Apple and Research in Motion, using their strongest contenders: iPhone and Blackberry, to topple the mobile manufacturing bigwig has ruffled quite a few Finnish feathers.

The chief crowd-puller at the event was the unveiling of Nokia’s latest top-end device, the touch-screen N8. A few months after Nokia declared about its decision to have its smart phone offerings this year, the Finnish giant has decided to pull up its latest trick up its state-of-the-art sleeves.

Smartphones are sophisticated handsets which enable the user to surf the internet, record videos and use other multimedia applications in addition to the traditional voice and text messaging. Based on the company’s updated Symbian operating system, the N8 offers a 12 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics and Xenon flash, HD-quality video recording, film editing software and Dolby surround sound in a sleek aluminium design. The expected connectivity to social networks, latest Web TV programs and Ovi Store apps are also part of the package deal.

In a move considered to be hugely tactical, this highly anticipated launch has been timed exactly a week after Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled the latest in their phenomenally successful iPhone series in San Francisco: the iPhone 4.

In April, Nokia announced that it had managed to boost the company’s smart phone market share to 41% from an estimated 40% in October-December 2009. In absolute figures, it meant Nokia sold 21.5 million of the 52.6 million smartphones sold globally during the first quarter. For the first quarter, Nokia’s net profit rose to €349m from just €122m a year ago, when it was hit by the global economic downturn.

“Nokia’s leadership has been questioned in recent months,” Jo Harlow, senior vice president for smartphones, said in an opening speech at the event. “However, it is often overlooked that we continue to have the largest market share in mobile devices and the largest share in smartphones, which is the fastest growing segment,” she said.

Fair enough. Nokia still holds the number one position in mobile phone manufacturing. But the fact stands its own ground: iPhone and Blackberry are causing it quite a lot of sweat when it comes to the smart phone sector, reflecting in their higher profit margins.