Nokia Asha 501: Nokia Ushers New Hope with a $99 Mobile Phone

Nokia, the Finnish mobile phone company that once dominated the world of mobile technology has been hanging on a thread for the past few years. Its former Symbian technology proved insufficient against what Apple’s IOS and Google’s Android OS are capable of. And then, Nokia made a huge leap when it chose Stephen Elop as the Chief Executive in 2010. The company also made another bold move when it teamed up with Microsoft in order to stay in the game with its fierce competitors. It is now launching the Nokia Asha 501.

Reinventing smartphones

Nokia’s Chief Executive Stephen Elop stated that the former glory of the Finnish company is soon to be regained. According to Elop, the release of the new Nokia Asha 501 will reinvent the way people nowadays use smartphones.

Costing around $99, Nokia is hoping to gain traction and increase sales in countries such as India with its new Asha 501. According to some analysts, this move of Nokia might be the only option that the former leading mobile phone maker has up its sleeve in order to come back in the game. Manufacturing and releasing low-budget smartphones to slowly move it way back to the top is a smart move, but the rewards might actually take a lot of time in coming.

Asha Means Hope

According to Nokia makers, Asha means hope in Hindi and with this “new hope” the company will have a renewed opportunity to rise again. The new Asha 501 was modeled to look like the Lumia Series of Nokia which, has a higher specification. The new mobile phone is said to have great features considering its low cost. Of course, social networking contents are readily available with this model.

Longer battery life than usual

The new Asha is also said to have awesome battery life. According to reports, the new Asha claims a 48-day battery life when on standby mode on 2G, and 17 hours of talk time. And for those who can’t do without their playlist, Asha can play music for 56 hours without dying on the user. These features are not at all too shabby for a $99 smart phone.

Other exciting features

Reports also stated that the new Asha comes in different colors. It is also fitted with a very nice and desirably sensitive multi-touch screen, a 3.2 megapixel camera, WiFi connectivity and Bluetooth connectivity as well. Another great feature of this new mobile phone by Nokia is its expandable memory of up to 32GB.

Lumia confusion

In a related development, a measure of confusion was accidentally relayed to the public in a demonstration of Nokia’s new flagship, the Lumia 902 with regard to the phone’s camera. Reports stated that Nokia openly admitted that a separate camera was used and not the one installed in the new 902. According to Nokia executives, the video presentation was not meant to deceive anyone since what they aimed for was to represent what the new 902 is expected to deliver. In the end, the Finnish company extended its apology to anyone that was misled by the presentation.

Photo Credit: Nokia’s Asha 501 Dual SIM