Nokia on Thursday (9th/May/2013) unveiled a USD 99 (about Rs 5,350) touch screen mobile with internet capability on its popular Asha series as it looks to regain lost ground after having fallen behind in the global smartphone race.
The Asha 501, which will be built in India, will roll out to 90 countries by June and will cost USD 99 excluding taxes. The phone will use a new software that allows users to multitask between built in applications for popular social media sites.
Nokia CEO Stephen Elop unveiled new software, called the Asha platform, to run its Asha devises. The new software is revamp of the old version and has been bundled with a pact that lets customers use Facebook for free on their handsets.
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 percent, free 4GB external memory, in-built chipset of less than 1 Ghz processing speed and a 3.2 megapixel camera.
"Asha 501 is the next generation of Asha smartphones... 80 percent of world operates in 2G environment and Asha 501 is customised to suit 2G environment. We will expand this family with 3G products as well," Elop added.
