Nokia has developed a new miniature version of its Communicator - the mobile phone equivalent of the Swiss Army knife - which it hopes will prove more attractive to women and less techie-minded business people.

'A high percentage of the current Communicator users are men. The new phone fits a lot better in a handbag, but also in a shirt pocket,' said Niklas Savander, Nokia's senior vice-president for business devices.

With the Replica Coach Boston Bag rounded new model, which is lighter and smaller than its predecessor, Nokia hopes to tackle the North American business market and also start marketing the all-in-one voice and email phone to women. 'The Communicator's history in the US market is not great, because of its size. This will make a difference,' a Nokia spokesman said.

The phone line may soon shed its nickname 'The Brick', which it was given because of its bulk, as the new model, the 9300, is not much bigger or heavier than smartphones offered by Nokia or its rivals. The 9300 will be in the shops early next near.

The Communicator product line is Nokia's offering in the handheld computer market and is aimed at business users who use their phone to also tap into e-mail, faxes and office documents while on the road. With the newest model, Mr Savander said Nokia is trying to expand beyond the 40 million-a-year business laptop buyers and ten million-a-year handheld computer buyers.

'We're now also looking T8 LED Tube T8-1200mm at customers shopping for an expensive phone or a smartphone,' he said.

This year alone, over 20 million smartphones will be sold, and the category is seen exploding to 170 million units a year in half a decade, market researchers have said.

Smartphones are handsets with big colour screens which can load computer-like applications such as route finders, music players, video and advanced games.

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The Communicator will be able to offer all of this, while adding a mini-sized keyboard, e-mail, higher security, and all kinds of business software.

Research in Motion's Blackberry e-mail service will be offered on the 9300, which will hit the shops at around 700 euros (around pounds 480) before subsidies, Nokia said.

'The 9300 takes the Communicator design to an acceptable size,' said market research analyst Ben Wood at Gartner.

But he added that at 700 euros the product was rather expensive for companies and Nokia needed to add more upscale phones to plug the holes in its line-up.

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