Speaking to an Yle reporter in New York, Elop talked proudly of the "journey" that Nokia began in February 2011, collaborating with his former employer, Microsoft.

When asked if he minded that rival Samsung launched its Windows 8 smartphone last week, Elop grinned.

"No, in fact anyone can stand up and say, 'here's a new phone,' but we were very proud to stand up and say, 'here's the world's first working Windows Phone 8 device. It's Lumia and obviously with a very deep partnership with Microsoft as demonstrated by the collaboration that you saw in our presentation today, some really good work has been done by both teams."

Basic phones selling well

While Elop admitted that Nokia is losing money in the smartphone business at the moment, he also stressed that the firm’s new Asha basic mobile phones are “off to a very positive sales start” in developing markets such as India and China. He described them as “full-touch devices that act and look like smartphones but at very low prices”.

He said the mobile phone business is “profitable and generating cash” while Nokia Siemens Networks “have gone profitable for the first time and are generating cash”.

Helsinki by night

When asked about new Motorola and Apple phones, Elop conceded that "it's a very, very, very competitive market.”

"The [Lumia] 920 is an important step, but even in the year ahead we have lots more to come,” he went on to say, adding: “The 920 is the best way to capture pictures and videos, even in very low-light conditions. We were very proud to show pictures of Helsinki completely at night in the dark, beautifully lit up using the Nokia Lumia 920. Similarly navigation, the use of Nokia City Lens to help you navigate through the world, clearly there are some things that Nokia have that differentiate us from everybody else.”