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Nokia has launched the Asha 501, a sleek, affordable and fast smartphone with innovative user interface, aimed at boosting the market share of the global mobile phone maker in developing |
During the global launch in the Indian capital on Thursday, Nokia Chief Executive Officer Stephen Elop announced that the new smartphone priced $99, will be available in 90 countries from June.
He said the Asha 501 had been built for a 2G environment, a network which many countries are still
using.
“We want to start with a very accessible product that reaches the largest number of people and 2G has that largest footprint particularly in emerging markets,” Elop said during a presentation, adding: “Later, we will expand this family with a 3G product as well.”
The new Nokia product’s talk time is up to 17 hours and a standby time of 48 days for the single SIM. The dual SIM can last up to 26 days. All units come with WiFi and Bluetooth.
It has a 3.2 MP camera, weighs 98 grams and has memory of 4GB which is expandable up to 32GB. It comes in six colours – bright red, bright green, cyan, yellow, white and black.
Some of its unique features included the choice of two main screens: Home and Fastlane, making it easier for users “to access everything they love with a simple swipe.”
Home is commonly used to open individual applications like the dialler or phone settings. But the Fastlane view keeps all the records of previous, current and future activities of a phone user.
To make mobile Internet browsing faster and affordable, the new Asha phone comes with Nokia Xpress browser preloaded, which compresses Internet data by up to 90%.
It also includes a new web application called “Nokia Xpress Now” for those who love to read and follow trending topics and other similar articles. It will be available via the Browser homepage or as a download from Nokia Store.
Those who love to play games can enjoy at least 40 EA Games worth €75 which are downloadable from the Nokia Store.
Peter Griffith, head of industrial design, said one of the key things they wanted to accomplish was to build a better device. “It is not really about trying to being cool, trying to be stylish, the most important thing for us is to find a way of building a better product, which we like to stand out in the market,” he said.
“In terms of reduction what I mean is taking away all of the detail that we can and leaving behind only the parts that are really important, which is quite difficult to do,” said Griffith. “What we’ve really done here is completely optimised to build a smartphone with this price.”
Nokia has also partnered with Facebook and mobile network operator Airtel to give Asha 501 users unlimited access to the popular social networking site.
Andre Beyers, chief marketing officer of Airtel Africa, said providing free data usage will give many people in Africa a better mobile
experience.
“We’re already witnessing tremendous growth in data use across the 17 countries where we operate. The provision of free Facebook access is an excellent proposition to the millions of Airtel consumers,” he said. Special data plans will also be offered to consumers.
“The new Nokia Asha 501 raises the bar for what is possible in affordable smartphone design and optimisation,” said Timo Toikkanen, executive vice president, Nokia.
The Asha 501 is the first device to run on the Nokia’s new Asha platform which gives developers with an open, standards-based environment for creating quality apps for consumers.
Some of the popular applications available for the Nokia Asha platform include CNN, eBuddy, ESPN, Facebook, Foursquare, Line, LinkedIn, Nimbuzz, Pictelligent, The Weather Channel, Twitter, WeChat, World of Red Bull and games from Electronic Arts, Gameloft, Indiagames, NamcoBandai and Reliance Games.