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“We’re playing to win – no holding back, no hesitation and no second guessing.” This was the defining message in Nokia CEO Stephen Elop’s opening keynote at Nokia World 2011 this week.

Over 3,000 people from more than 70 countries worldwide turned out for this year’s Nokia World conference at London’s ICC Excel Centre to see Elop unveil a bold portfolio of new phones, services and accessories. We joined the event live via webcast.

Highlighting how we as consumers are “all shaped by our daily experiences”, Elop set the scene for the keynote by sharing his views on how technology is making it easier to share experiences with friends and the world around us.

“Mobile technology opens the doors to thousands of experiences,” said Elop. “Technology takes you somewhere different and unexpected. It can make our eyes widen, our mouths smile and enrich our day, and these experiences happen all the time – they’re around every corner waiting for you.”

And this is where Nokia comes in. “Earlier this year we recognised the need to shift our strategy so we could deliver even better mobile experiences,” continued Elop. “We want more, we want people to feel and expect something special when they hear the word Nokia, but this simply wouldn’t happen without change.”

In defining this change Elop pointed to key milestones achieved by Nokia in recent months including the successful launch of the Nokia N9, with its iconic industrial design, a new swipe user interface and a continued focus on the Qt development platform.

“We were very proud,” commented Elop. “We built this product to examine how simple elegance can be deceptively easy to use. Early demand for the N9 in the day since it launched in certain target markets has been very strong.”

After handing over to Blanca Juti to launch Asha – a family of four new smarter mobile phones running on the Symbian S40 operating system and part of the company’s ‘Connect the Next Billion’ strategy – Elop returned to the stage to announce the day’s big news.

“The line is blurring between smartphones and mobile devices,” he said. “But we know very well there is still space in smartphones for innovation. There are ways to make them simpler, smarter, more flexible, designed around your needs and the people most relevant to you. We believe the world is ready for something new, something more integrated, something more beautiful.”

And with that, Elop introduced the highly anticipated Nokia Lumia 800, the company’s first smartphone in its Windows Phone-based Nokia Lumia range.

“This is a simply elegant phone that brings a gentler structure to mobility. We took the stunning design approach introduced with the Nokia N9 and evolved it with the Nokia Lumia 800.  Whether physical or digital every feature on the Nokia Lumia 800 has earned its place by focusing on the essential elements.”

Nokia’s first phone built on the Windows Phone platform, Elop said he believes the Nokia Lumia 800 is the world’s “first ever instantiation of the Windows Phone platform that properly embodies and amplifies its design sensibility.” Or simply stated: “Lumia is the first real Windows Phone.”

Met with widespread applause around the conference centre this was a clear message of Nokia’s commitment to leading the global charge with Windows Phone, signalling a new dawn for Nokia, a new dawn for Windows Phone and a new dawn for smartphone users.

With its head-turning design, vivid colours and the best social and Internet performance, with one-touch social network access, easy grouping of contacts, integrated communication threads and Internet Explorer 9, there really are too many amazing features to run through here to do the new Nokia Lumia range justice, so check out the data sheets and pics.

Details of the other big announcements from the day including services such as Nokia Drive, Nokia Music with MixRadio and Gifinder and a new accessories partnership with Monster are also available here: http://press.nokia.com/press-release/

As for the second day of Nokia World, there is a lot more to come. You can view Day Two keynotes live via the Nokia World website: http://events.nokia.com/nokiaworld/home.htm

To follow or contribute to the Nokia World discussion online you can also visit the Nokia Conversations blog, follow @nokia and #NokiaWorld on Twitter.

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