Nokia, on Thursday, unveiled its Asha 501 touchscreen mobile device globally from here priced at $99 (about Rs.5,300), which is expected to give tough competition to the entry-level devices running on the popular Android operating system.
“This is the first product in our new generation of Asha phones. India is a bellwether market... It is very symbolic that we are not launching this from certain other country. We are launching it here in India because so much of our work is focussed on Indian consumers,” Nokia CEO Stephen Elop said at a global event held here.
It’s the first product of the new generation Asha with a brand new platform. Its design is inspired by Lumia series of phones, and will be available in six colours.
Price
The device will be available in the market from June, and will cost $99 plus taxes in India. It supports only 2G connection and Wi-Fi. Nokia said that the 3G version would be launched later. Asha 501 is dual SIM phone which promises 17 hours of talk time on single SIM use and 48 days of standby time.
The device comes with Nokia Xpress Browser pre-loaded, which compresses Internet data by up to 90 per cent, free 4 GB external memory, in-built chipset of less than 1 Ghz processing speed and a 3.2 megapixel camera.
Mr. Elop said the company had partnered 60 operators to sell Asha 501 phones in more than 90 countries.
