Nokia confirms N8 hardware failures

The executive vice president of Nokia's markets unit has acknowledged that some Nokia N8 handsets are refusing to switch on as a result of a hardware fault.

In an interview on the Nokia Conversations blog on Thursday, Niklas Savander confirmed reports that a minority of Nokia N8 handsets — which began shipping at the end of September — were suffering a hardware fault that caused the handset to switch off and refuse to switch back on again.

A Nokia spokesperson told ZDNet UK on Friday that the source of the problem is related to the Symbian device's power management. On the blog, Savander said that the company has traced the issue to "the way we [Nokia] assemble the engines", adding that the total number of handsets affected is small in comparison to the total number of handsets shipped.

"However, for the one individual where it's not working, it is, of course, a significant issue... As a precautionary measure we have taken immediate action across the product line," he said.

Savander added there is no one specific region that should be concerned. "We've taken precautions across the entire range," he said. "You cannot identify certain geography."

Nokia said that any customers who think they have been affected by the issue can contact their customer service centre, and the issue will be fully covered by the handset's standard warranty.

Earlier in November, the Symbian Foundation, which Nokia founded and which used to be supported by other companies such as Sony Ericsson, announced that it was scaling back its responsibilities and would, in future, only act as a licensing agent. Nokia will continue to support and develop the platform, defining what 'open' means for Symbian in the process.