How does it work? Well, the Finnish company uploads three different designs or attributes and lets community members cast a vote on which particular element they would like to see on a Nokia mobile phone unit. Sounds simple, right? It is. And it does seem to get a lot of consumers buzzing about whatever popular part gets voted in.

This is a way to get consumer feedback on which designs are appealing as compared to others. In recent years, Nokia has not been able to garner bas much attention and support as the Cupertino based Apple and devices carrying the open source operating system, the little green Google Android. Fortunately for them, they have survived by tapping into the smart dumb phone market, releasing nice budget phones that will not make the headlines but will surely give the masses a practical option.

Of course, this does not mean that the Finnish company, which was once at the top of the game, is already happy with their success. According to July’s YouGov Poll, the interest in their brand of handsets has taken a nose dive. To be specific, the interest has gone down a whopping 12 percent.

The concept phone project will hopefully lift this number in the following months. Started in March, the number of design submissions has reached the 72,000 mark already, with winning designs sporting an 8 megapixel snapper (4x optical zoom), unlimited multitasking and a 4-inch capacitive display. The final sketch will be made into a 3D rendered model and will be showcased for all to see in Nokia’s Conversations blog.

The financial reports for Nokia show that sales are actually up compared to last year. Nokia’s devices are still very much in demand, however, prices for mobile phones are going down and the report also showed that despite selling more devices, Nokia actually made less in terms of profits. Since Nokia manufactures large volumes of mid to low end devices, it is not surprising that they are making less money now. Of course, Nokia will eventually be shifting most of its production capabilities to smart phones.

Smart phones such as the Symbian^3 N8 handset which was supposed to come out last April; the device has been delayed and while Nokia says it will be out ‘soon’, no one has yet to give out specific details. Earlier reports hinted at a possible launch next week -though judging from the fact that network operators are only offering pre-registrations for the handset instead of pre-orders, it is possible that the device might not be released until next month.

In the meanwhile, Nokia is ignoring Apple’s recently uploaded video of the N97 Mini which showed symptoms similar to the antenna issue that the iPhone 4 is suffering from. Nokia has already given a public statement regarding Apple’s emergency conference last week and stated that their mobile phones’ antenna technology is both stable and reliable.

Considering that the N97 Mini has already been out for a while and it has not had any complaints about dropped calls, then there is no need for Nokia to make a further statement regarding the issue.

According to an independent study by YouGov, the number of people interested in getting a Nokia handset has gone down by at least 12%. Only 34% of phone buyers are considering getting a Nokia.

While the drop is mostly attributed to Apple’s new iPhone launch, but many also believe that Nokia has failed to keep public interest in their devices by failing to come up with truly innovative handsets in the past few months. With most of Nokia’s mobile phones still concentrating on the low end users, many high end smart phone users pass up Nokia devices in favor of phones from LG, Samsung, HTC and other big name phone manufacturers.

The Espoo based company needs to ramp up its game. Not only is Nokia currently the largest phone manufacturer in the world, they are also the most eco-friendly (with Sony Ericsson ranking in second place) as reported by Greenpeace.

Nokia has previously led the industry by setting new standards for mobile phone makers. Also, the close ties between the Finnish phone maker and the Symbian foundation has led to the creation of several iconic devices as well. Unless they are able to come up with a phone that is truly able to compete with the Android, iOS and Windows Phone 7, Nokia stands to lose plenty of ground in the next generation of smart phones.

This means that the upcoming Nokia N8 which uses the new launched Symbian^3 OS and the Nokia N9 which uses MeeGo which was developed by both Intel and Nokia are going to determine what happens to the company in the next few months.

According to a post found on the All About Symbian, which reads thus, “In 2007, Apple introduced the iPhone a ground -breaking device that allows users access to the functionality of the already popular ipod on a revolutionary mobile phone and internet device…The iPhone has caused a revolutionary change in the mobile phone category.
In contrast, Nokia made a different business decision and remained focused on traditional mobile wireless handsets with conventional user interfaces. As a result, Nokia has rapidly lost share in the market for high-end mobile phones…
In response, Nokia chooses to copy the iPhone, especially its enormously popular and patented design and user interface.”

Taking a closer look at Apple’s claims, they may not be unconnected to the company’s latest deliveries to the market. Apple seem to be pointing at all Symbian S60 and 40 mobile phones and possibly other infringements according to Apple’s law suit, could be Nokia’s USB among others.

Apples Senior Vice president and General Counsel, Bruce Sewell, gave an insight into the legal issue as, “other companies must compete with us by inventing their own technologies, not just by stealing ours.”

It is not clear where this would lead to, but one thing for sure is that the suit filed at the United States District Court of Delaware is going to reveal how far the mobile world has gone in the competition for the very competitive market mobile telecommunication sector. The suit, when finally determined will go a long way in laying to rest issues of patent rights and infringements.