Nokia – the world’s largest handset vendor – will reportedly unveil its first touchscreen phone on Thursday. Reuters reports the Finnish manufacturer will take the wraps off the much-anticipated device, codenamed ‘Tube’, at a London event on October 2. Kai Oistamo, head of Nokia’s devices business, said in July the Finnish firm was fully committed to bringing a complete portfolio of touchscreen devices to the market, both in the high-end and low-end segments. “The phone is extremely important,” Carolina Milanesi, analyst at Gartner, told Reuters. “We have been waiting for the market leader to respond to Apple’s iPhone for a year and a half now. There is a lot of pressure on Nokia.”

As well as Apple’s iPhone, Nokia also trails rivals such as LG and Samsung in the launch of touchscreen devices. In addition, HTC last week unveiled the G1, the world’s first device based on Google’s Android mobile operating system. Analysts claim Nokia’s move will help the Finnish manufacturer maintain its 40 percent market share dominance. Meanwhile, fourth-placed vendor LG today launched what it claims is its cheapest touchscreen mobile phone – the LG KP500, a quad-band GSM handset. The KP500 will be available at the end of October in Europe, followed by the rest of the world. Separately, Strategy Analytics today forecast that touchscreen phone shipments will reach 90 million units worldwide in 2009, accounting for 7 percent of total volumes.