Nokia is reportedly planning two flagship smartphone debuts for 2013. The first one was codenamed Catwalk, as reported earlier, while second thrust will be known as Nokia Laser, set to be exclusively distributed by Verizon later this year.

This top-notch Nokia smartphone, according to The Verge, will be unveiled later this year. It is understood that the planned handset (likely already in the works) will remain in the Windows Phone 8 platform, with the same report indicating that Microsoft is an active partner in the project.

"Microsoft is said to be investing marketing dollars to push the Laser when it debuts later this year," said The Verge on its report.

Consumers can expect that the next joint WP8 undertaking by Nokia and Microsoft will mostly take after the designs and functions of the Lumia 920, possibly retaining its basic hardware designs with specific bump ups on processing and GPU capabilities.

Essentially, The Verge report suggests that Verizon is contracting a signature phone that Nokia and Motorola will supply, with the final make not too far from what was seen in the Lumia 920 that started rolling out late last year.

If the idea is to retain most of the Lumia 920 characteristics that were already uncloaked, Laser would be different from the rumoured Catwalk handset, which according to earlier blog reports will be wrapped in aluminium casing.

Laser would likely retain is hefty built with some power boosts while Catwalk is expected to present a different Nokia taste - slimmer and sexier but carrying the same brute power in all respects, especially its cutting edge PureView camera technology.

However, Lumia fans probably would not mind if Nokia would shave some weight and thickness off the refreshed Lumia 920 to put in league with the latest lines of smartphones, most of which deployed with trimmed casing but packed with power under the hood.

Per Nokia's latest financial report, its Lumia lines delivered profits to the Finnish firm for Q4 2012. The company revealed that it shipped out 4.4 million Lumia units in the three months comprising the last quarter of the previous year.

With additional 2.2 million Symbian-powered devices also pushed out in the same period, Nokia said that it mobile device division netted $US367 million for a full operating profit of $US585.7 million in the quarter.

In the same report, Nokia announced the retirement of its Symbian mobile operating system, indicating that the Nokia 808 PureView, famed for its 32MP camera shooter, will be the last to stand on the platform.