Nokia launches smarter Asha 501 with operator billing

Pranay Parab : New Delhi, Fri May 10 2013, 13:58 hrs

Nokia A woman walks past a Nokia advertisement board at a home appliances store in Shenyang, Liaoning province. (Reuters)

Nokia launched a new 'smart' feature phone, Asha 501, in Delhi on Thursday. This device, Nokia said, is the first of a new generation of Asha phones, based on the new Asha OS, as opposed to Series 40 that was on older Asha phones.

With this phone, Nokia has begun a serious push into the market for cheap Internet phones. Priced at Rs 5,500, the Asha 501 comes in two variants – single and dual SIM. Asha 501 is a 2.8-inch device with a capacitive touchscreen. The new Asha OS is based almost entirely on swipe gestures and is a good option for those who cannot afford smartphones. One shortcoming is that the phone does not support 3G connectivity, so users will have to browse on slower 2G network speeds. Nokia said it will launch a 3G Asha phone in the future.

During the launch, Nokia CEO Stephen Elop said: "Asha 501 is the first of a new family of phones in this series. Ninety per cent of the apps on Series 40 will be available on the Asha platform in a few months. The design of the Asha 501 is inspired by the Lumia series."

Just like Lumia, the Asha 501 is available in several colours. As for app support, Elop said popular apps such as Facebook, Twitter, Plants vs Zombies, etc are already available.

Peter Skillman, Nokia's design head, said the phone has long battery life. Nokia claimed that it can last for 17 hours (talktime) and 48 days on standby on a single charge. Skillman said: "In India, Asha 501 will come pre-loaded with Indian language keyboards. Hindi, Gujarati, Malayalam and Tamil are among many languages that the Asha 501 supports."

Nokia also announced that Asha 501 users will gain access to operator billing for app purchases. Users can buy apps and the cost will be added to their phone bills. This is a major move for developers, as operator billing is known to increase app purchases.

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