With the Chinese Lunar New Year coming up on February 10 this year, marking the approaching gift-giving season in the country, Finnish handset maker Nokia - which is aggressively trying to re-enter China - is facing supply shortages in the country.

Since the Lunar New Year in China is followed by a weeklong holiday, and the shopping rush witnessed in the country is similar to the Christmas holiday shopping in the US, Nokia's supply shortages will give its rivals a chance to widen their lead in the country.

Nokia needs to improve its supply in China if it wants to get a toehold in the country again; all the more so because China Mobile's New Year campaign also features devices impressive devices from other manufacturers, including the Galaxy Note 2 from Samsung; A798T from Lenovo; the Coolpad 8190 from China Wireless; the MT788 from Google's Motorola Mobility; and T528t from HTC.

Noting that Nokia's production is still "very low" and there is not enough supply to meet the demand, as of now, China Mobile's Li said, during the course of February 1 interview, that most of the China Mobile stores do not have any Nokia devices.

However, asserting that Nokia is "now building more capacity. to match the demand, Nokia's chief financial officer Timo Ihamuotila had said on a January 24 conference call: "We would expect that at some point in not too distant future, we would be in a situation where we are no longer constrained."