By Alphonsus E.W

Finnish mobile phone manufacturer Nokia said on Tuesday it sharply reduced its net loss in the third quarter to €91m ($125 million) although sales have continued to spiral downwards.

While losses during the quarter were less than one tenth of what they had been a year earlier, turnover during the three-month period dropped 22% to €5.6 billion.

Nokia has endured a turbulent period in recent times, as evidenced by its drastic drop in value in the recently released Interbrand ranking for world’s most valuable brands.

The company also announced the release of its first Windows Tablet on Tuesday. The device is a colourful one named Nokia Lumia 2520, same day that Microsft’s new Tablet, Surface 2, went on sale. Microsoft does not yet own Nokia’s devices business. If it did, it is questionable whether the Surface 2 and Lumia 2520 would both exist, because they are similar in several ways.

The Lumia 2520 and Surface 2 both have screens around 10 inches and run Windows RT, the variation of the Windows operating system designed for thinner, low-power mobile devices based on the ARM class of processors.

The Lumia tablet comes in red, blue and other colors, making it look festive compared with the more serious, professional-looking Surface 2. A $149 cover that doubles as a keyboard will be available for the Nokia, as similar products are for the Surface.

Microsoft will not say how it plans to reconcile its Surface product family with Nokia’s tablet when its $7.2 billion deal to buy Nokia’s device business closes, which is expected to occur in the first quarter of next year.

The new Nokia tablet also had the misfortune of being announced on the same day that Apple announced upgrades to its popular iPad products in San Francisco.