Nokia unveiled its new Windows Phone 8 smartphones a week before Apple's big event when it is expected to pull the wraps of its next-generation iPhone, which gave the Finnish company the perfect opportunity to make a bold, confident and strong statement. Instead, Nokia managed to seem a little too desperate due to its misleading promotional video.

On Wednesday, Sept. 5, Nokia showed off its new Lumia 920 smartphone with PureView camera technology, which allegedly shoots amazingly clear photos and video. In an effort to better explain the feature, the company created a video demonstrating the Lumia's optical image stabilization, a feature designed to reduce blur and camera shake in images and take better photos in low light.

That demonstrative video, however, was not even shot with a Lumia phone. In fact, the video actually shows a reflection of a cameraman holding a camera, not a smartphone, as tech site Pocket Now first noticed. Nokia acknowledged it used a different camera for the video and eventually apologized, explaining that it only intended to demonstrate optical image stabilization, not give the impression that it was demonstrating the Lumia's camera itself.

"In our enthusiasm, we showed poor judgment by neglecting to include a disclaimer that the video was not shot using a Lumia 920," Nokia's head of media relations Doug Dawson told the New York Times in a statement. "It was an error and we apologize for the confusion created."

On Saturday, Sept. 8, Nokia expanded its apology for using misleading marketing materials in the launch of its new line of phones. The company also reckoned that other pieces of the promotional material, such as still photography, were a simulation as well.

Nokia actually used a hand-held video camera and lighting rig rather than the Lumia camera to create the video in question. The company then used that material as proof that the PureView technology in its new phone was superior to technology already on the market. Nokia claims it had good intentions, but its failure to fully represent from the start how it captured that promotional material deals a big blow to the company's credibility.

The move to simulate the camera capabilities of the Lumia 920 rather than wait until the real PureView technology was fully functional denotes desperation, and shows the urgency with which Nokia raced to launch its next line of devices before competitors got an edge.

"Nokia recently apologized when it became clear that a video, which had been produced to demonstrate the benefits of optical image stabilization, failed to make clear that it was a simulation only and not shot using the new PureView camera on the Nokia Lumia 920. This video was produced when the Nokia Lumia 920 was in preproduction," Nokia explained in an emailed statement to the Wall Street Journal. "While there was no intention to mislead, the failure to add a disclaimer to the video was obviously a mistake, and we apologize for the misunderstanding it did cause."

"Further misunderstanding has arisen about still photographs taken at night in the street in Helsinki," added the company. "We want to be very clear that these still images were taken from the same video. The entire video is a representation of the benefits of optical image stabilization only and our apology was for using any part of the video without a clear disclaimer."