Nokia, the world's top cellphone maker, said on Friday some of its flagship N8 smartphones were sold with a power fault that meant they switched themselves off.

Nokia Sales Chief Niklas Savander said, "A limited number of N8 users" were facing the problem of their phones switching off, and they are not able to turn them on again.

A spokesman said the fault was due to a problem in production, which has since been fixed. He said the issue was limited to the N8 model, but declined to comment on how many phones were impacted.

"Probably not all consumers have informed Nokia about the problems, so the final number of faulty products is likely to increase," Nordea analyst Sami Sarkamies said.

"Hardware problems can be tricky to find and solve," he said.

The fault in the power management stems from the way in which the engine component -- which includes most of the technology in the phone, excluding covers and batteries -- in the Nokia N8 was being installed.

The N8 is seen as Nokia’s answer to Apple’s iPhone.