14/05/2013 World Business Report

David Bowie's Space Oddity while on the space station. Those are the

latest headlines. Now for the D-Day for not year as it prepares

to unveil a new model of its Lumia phone -- Nokia. Another attempt to

win customers away from its rivals. And Sharp things its hopes on

Samsung as it gets set to reveal another huge last -- pins its hopes.

-- huge loss. Also in the programme: Australia presents its

budget not long before elections. What will the government offer? We

will assess that as well. But first, a very big day for the Finnish

mobile phone maker Nokia. In a few hours it will unveil a brand new

addition of this Lumia line of Windows Phones in London -- it's.

Their success in the high-margin smartphone market is crucial for

its long-term survival. The latest model is expected to offer a

superior camera technology. I'm joined by Martin Garner from CCS In

sight. What are you expecting Nokia to reveal this time? We saw about a

week ago that they launch an upgraded flagship with one operator

in North America. Expectations are quite high. We're expecting this

time around is something similar to what we saw a week ago. And

advancement but not a real leap forward. Many are saying that Nokia

keeps introducing new versions but it is so far behind Samsung and

Apple. What is your take on its attempts to try to steal market

share in the smartphone Arena. has been in turnaround mode in

smartphones for about two years. It is now quite a small player in

smartphones. We think it now has quite a good range of products in

the area. It just needs to keep pushing and build momentum and keep

going. We saw a bit of that with its quarter one results. But it

just needs to keep pushing hard. What about the argument that the

team up with Microsoft was a bad move. The CEO was quizzed on that

at the last AGM. He said that the decision was made and they will

continue. We think she did not have that many auctions. If he had come

with Android, there are a lot of unhappy Android suppliers --

options. Only Samsung is having a good time so it might not have been

the answer not to go with Windows. There are cycles in his industry.

Nokia is not someone we should forget just yet. You need to

remember five years ago Nokia was king of the hill and had everything

going for it. Market share does change hands quite a lot in this

industry. In five years at all and Samsung are unlikely still to be at

the top of their game -- Apple. There is an opportunity. There are

lots of people chasing that opportunity, so Nokia will have a

tough time, but they have to keep trying. In previous years when you

look at these technical moves in the industry, we weren't in a

smartphone era, does that still apply? -- the cyclical moves.

needs to keep developing more and more apps, and keep that side of it

building, so it can show the world it has this momentum and can carry

that across to consumers. Really good to hear your perspective,

Martin, thank you for joining us. The launch is today in London. It

is shrouded in secrecy. We will keep you updated as far as Nokia's

concerned today. Let's move on. Another struggling tech firm, Sharp,

Japan's number one maker of LCD TVs is expected to make another huge

loss today as TV consumers turn to cheaper options. They are hoping a

closer tie with Samsung will secure Sharp has been having a tough time.

Sales are on the steady decline as TV consumers turn to overseas

manufacturers for cheaper options. Amid mounting losses the company

has been trying to restructure. But it's been tough. After its credit

rating was ruined last year. Two months ago Samsung agreed to buy a

3% stake in them for $110 million. A deal analysts said should give a

boost to the company's efforts to turn its business around. The

deadline for talks on another potential cash injection, this time

from Taiwan's Hong Hi, passed without an agreement. Thousands of

jobs at Shah have already been cut as part of efforts to secure its

long-term survival -- Sharp. Now there are expectations more workers

will go and there will be an even tighter tie-up with Samsung. It is

a painful restructuring designed to lead to profitability. Whether it

Let's go to Australia now where the budget will be revealed this

evening. It could be the chance for a few cash handouts because the

election will be in September. But that is unlikely, the government is

well behind in the polls and finances are tight despite two

decades of growth. For the past two decades successive Australian

treasurers have generally enjoyed their moment in the Budget might

limelight. After all the economy has seen 21 years of uninterrupted

annual growth. 12 months ago Wayne Swan was basking in that success.

Now, as he prepares to deliver what is likely to be his final Budget,

his Swann song, it will doubtless be called, the mood is very

different. He could be looking at a decade of debt. Having pledged

repeatedly to return the Budget to surplus he has admitted in the

lead-up that the country now faces a fiscal black hole. During the

mining boom, successive governments made long-term spending commitments

that are now hard to fund the cost of a falling commodity price and

corporate taxes -- because of. The mining tax, intended to spread the

vast riches of the resources boom, has hardly swell the coffers. Nor

has the carbon tax, brought in last year, brought in the revenue first

forecast. Making matters worse for the overall economic output,

Australia's terms of trade have declined. The Australian dollar has

stayed at high levels. Even though it has fallen off recently it is

still at parity with the greenback. And concerns about a slowdown in

the economy and an end to the mining boom caused a reduction in

the interest rate to the lowest in 52 years. With an election in

September, which the government is expected to lose heavily, this will

be a very political Budget. But given there's no money there's

little likelihood of any vote giveaways. George Osborne will be

meeting with other European Union finance ministers today where he

plans to call for more efforts to tackle tax evasion and avoidance.

He is seeking EU backing for a global tax standard based on

automatic exchange of information between tax authorities. The man

expected to be Pakistan's next prime minister Nawaz Sharif has

told the BBC that fixing the economy will be his top priority.

Mr Sharif said this would go a long way to reducing unemployment,

poverty, illiteracy and terrorist violence. Shares in India's Tata

Steel have fallen as much as 2.5% today following an announcement

they will write down $1.6 billion on weak figures in Europe. Over

saturation of the market was also given as another reason for the

data. Now the markets today in Asia, quite excited about the fact that

yesterday in the US we saw retail sales figures higher than expected

in the month of April. You can see in Japan a slight loss, but let's

not forget Japan has been on a roll for quite some time. It is well

above 14,000 now. Only the week before last it recover 14,000 for

the first time in five years. Now it's not too far away from 15,000.

Hong Kong down a bit. We will keep an eye on Australia today as the