NOKIA LAUNCHES ASHA 501 SMARTPHONE AT JUST $99

 
 

Nokia Corp., struggling to regain ground in the competitive smartphone market, unveiled a $99 touchscreen smartphone to help drive sales and boost its falling market share. This phone will be powered by a refreshed Asha operating system (OS) featuring software capabilities from Smarterphone. The Asha 501 is the first of a new family of smartphones which Nokia says “pushes the boundaries of affordable smartphone design with bold colour, a high-quality build and an innovative user interface”.

Nokia, once the world's largest phone maker, has struggled to compete in the high-end smartphone market dominated by Apple Inc. and South Korean rival Samsung Electronics Co. Adding to its misery is stiff competition from Chinese manufacturers as well as other low-cost Indian phone makers such as Micromax Informatics Ltd. In India, Micromax sells a smartphone for as little as $65, while Samsung sells devices below $110. Up until last year, Nokia had a dominant market share in India, but is seeing increasing threat from Samsung.

Apple Inc.'s iOS and Google Inc.'s  Android has now been dominating the mobile operating system market & Nokia has had little success with its own operating system. Despite its scale and relationship with carriers, it hasn't been able to attract developers to create good native applications. Nokia ended up dropping its Symbian platform in favor of Microsoft Corp.'s  Windows in 2011.
 

The Asha 501's software offers just two main screens called ‘Home’ and Fastlane. Nokia says ‘Home’ is the traditional, icon-based view for launching individual apps or accessing a specific feature while Fastlane is inspired by how user really uses the phone. Recently accessed contacts, social networks and apps, are stored and presented in Fastlane. It provides a record of how the phone is used, giving people a glimpse of their past, present and future activity, and helping them multi-task by providing easy access to their favourite features.”

"The new Asha platform provides developers with an open, standards-based environment for creating quality apps for consumers. Developers can create apps for the Nokia Asha 501 that will be compatible with future Asha platform-based devices," Nokia stated. Apps from EA Games, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter will be available on the Asha platform. However, popular messaging tool WhatsApp was not available at launch.

Nokia claims the standby time for the 501 could theoretically run to 48 days. A 3.2MP camera is included and a dual SIM option is also available. The talk time is up to 17 hours.

From June, consumers can buy the phone, which will be available in six colours, from 60 operators and distributors in more than 90 countries.