The Nokia 700 is a recently launched HSPA phone running Symbian Belle. The unexpected news is that TI produced a new chip for Nokia instead of just letting the existing product line run to end of life as most expected it would - TI exited the merchant baseband business years ago and Nokia shifted its strategy to a more open approach. ABI Research says that new TI chip combines two chips into one and operates at a higher frequency than prior generations. The results for Nokia are lower cost, higher performance, and low power drain. The core (Arm11) is not up to the performance of most new launches this year but the combination of OS and supporting chips make for an enjoyable experience, the research firm says.

The coming months will tell if this new design is enough for TI to maintain its $1.7B annual revenue from baseband sales that mainly come from Nokia.