Nokia sees strong take-up of push email devices

Nokia is on track with sales of its E-series phones aimed at competing with the popular BlackBerry device, a company official quoted by a Reuters report said.

"It looks good. Sales have started very well and according to expectations," Antti Vasara of Nokia's Enterprise Solutions division said.

The Nokia E-series handsets were mainly aimed at corporate users, targeting a slice of the lucrative market pioneered by the popular Blackberry of Canadian-based Research In Motion, the report said.

"Of course we are trying to challenge the position of Blackberry," Vasara further said, adding that Nokia had high ambitions for the US, but was realistic about the market, where RIM was a strong leader in corporate devices with functions such as mobile email.

A Nokia official declined to comment on the report ahead of the company's second quarter results, scheduled to be announced on July 20.

The latest model in the series, the E50, which had been expected to hit the stores before the end of June, was set to start shipping in the next few weeks, the report said.