Nokia Launches Low End Smartphones

After the high profile launch of the new Lumia devices that feature the Windows Phone 8 platform, Nokia unveiled two low end Symbian smartphones. This is probably a marketing effort from the company to remain strong in the markets that have seen it through the tough time so far. The two phones fit into the Asha line of smartphones and are labeled the 308 and 309 and come with a starting base price of $99. The phones are expected to be released into the market in the fourth quarter of 2012. While the Lumia devices are definitely going to take up the spotlight, it will not be surprising if these phones do solidify the grassroots for Nokia.

The two phones come with the basic smartphone features such as a 3” touchscreen and an 800 MHz processor. In fact, the processor is quite powerful for something that is in the $99 price bracket. The imaging features are only basic with a 2 megapixel camera and the 309 comes with integrated WiFi while the 308 has support for two SIM cards. Both the phones have similar multimedia features such as video streaming capabilities from YouTube.

Nokia has been rapidly losing its marketshare to Apple and manufacturers like Samsung which manufacture phones powered by Google’s Android OS. When the company shifted to Microsoft’s Windows Phone platform, it allegedly got rid of the Symbian platform but that doesn’t seem to be true. Perhaps the less than satisfactory performance of the Lumia phones in the market forced the Finnish giant to reopen the segment that was once its stronghold.

The critical thing about the low end smartphones is that they can be sold at a high margin and can be in direct competition to cheap smartphones from Asian manufacturers like Huawei, which has been going strong recently. Huawei has a robust Android portfolio that can do well even in the high end market. The new Asha devices are going to be primarily marketed in emerging markets and with the demand for mobile phones increasing in such places, it will be a step forward for Nokia if the devices are successful. The pressure was high on the Lumia line of devices to take the company back into the playing field but the Asha devices seem to be under equal strain to make up for the margins until the Lumia phones strengthen themselves in the market.