Nokia raises the bar with budget smartphone Asha 501

The sub $100 smart phone market offers a $40 billion business opportunity by 2015

To unlock the sub-$100 smartphone market, Finish phone maker Nokia on Thursday launched the next-generation Asha platform with Asha 501 its low-end smartphone. Unveiling the new model here, Nokia chief executive Stephen Elop said the sub-$100 handset market offered a $40-billion business opportunity by 2015.

To be available from June, the $99 touchscreen model is expected to be priced at Rs 5,350 (excluding taxes) in India. It will be built at the company’s Chennai factory. At this price point, it is likely to compete against Samsung’s Rex90 range and the Galaxy Y series, the market leader in the smartphone segment.

With its next-generation Asha platform, Nokia is trying to blur the difference between Android-powered smartphones and low-end smartphones under its Asha series. Elop said today’s launch was the first of many such launches on the new platform, in the coming months. “We hope to sell 100 million Asha phones in the coming years,” he said. Highlighting the importance of the Indian market for the success of its sub-$100 range of phones, Elop said India was a bellwether market and a leading indicator of technology trends. “We are launching it here, in India, because so much of our work is focused on Indian consumers,” he said.

India is the second-largest market for Nokia, after China.

A couple of days earlier, Nokia’s headquarters in Helsinki had seen a heated annual general meeting, with shareholders expressing disappointment over the company’s sales not gaining enough traction to take on competition from Samsung and Android-based phones. Analysts have voiced concern about the sagging sales of Nokia’s Asha feature phone series.

To dispel doubts its feature and low-end smartphones were losing momentum, Elop said the new Asha platform was customised to suit the 2G environment. “Around 80 per cent of the world operates in the 2G environment. We will expand this family with 3G products as well,” he said. The company claimed 60 operators across 90 countries had committed to selling Asha smartphones.

Timo Toikkanen, executive vice-president (mobile phones), Nokia, said when it came to affordable smartphone design and optimisation, Asha phones raised the bar. The phone borrows design elements from the Lumia smartphone series and offers a smart and personal internet experience. “It our way to connect the next billion people to the internet,” Toikkanen said.

The device, available in single- and dual-SIM models and six colour options, has WiFi and bluetooth capabilities. It gives up to 17 hours of talk time, 48 days of standby time and has a 3.2 MP camera.

In India, Samsung leads the smartphone market, with a share of 42 per cent (in terms of units shipped) in the quarter ended December 2012. It was followed by Nokia (14.4 per cent), according to International Data Corporation. In terms of revenue, Samsung had 48.3 per cent share of the market, while Nokia’s share was 11.2 per cent. Apple has been aggressive at the top-end of the smartphone segment.