LONDON — Nokia said a firming in prices for mobile phones during the third quarter and increased sales, notably of 3G phones, would push its earnings and profits above figures forecast earlier this year.

The Finnish company updated its guidance and is now predicting net sales of between 8.4 billion Euros and 8.5 billion Euros (about $10.3 billion to $10.4 billion) for the third quarter ending September 30.

It previously estimated sales for the period would be between 7.9 billion Euros and 8.2 billion Euros (about $9.7 billion to $10 billion).

However, it said the performance at its infrastructure group, Nokia Networks, would be in line with previous expectations.

The revised guidance on earnings per share, up to between 0.18 Euros and 0.19 Euros from between 0.14 to 0.17 Euros previously, will be impacted by the proceeds from divestments expected to be completed during the third quarter.

Nokia will report full third quarter 2005 results on Oct. 20, 2005.

The company also announced Tuesday (Sept. 13) it would expand its focus on business users and launched Nokia Business Center, the first offering being a push email service for smartphones and business-optimized mobile devices.

It said the mobile email market is “vast and untapped”, noting recent market analysis that suggests there are 650 million corporate email inboxes in use today, while current corporate mobile email subscribers number less than 10 million.