Nokia (NOK) Launches Two New Devices in Key Smartphone Segment
7:27 AM ET, 09/25/2012 - Street Insider
Nokia (NYSE: NOK) has added two new devices to its Asha lineup as consumers in Asia continue to demand features commonly found on more expensive handsets...and Nokia is more than willing to oblige.
The models -- Asha 308 and 309 -- run on 2G networks, have a 3-inch WQVGA capacitive display with multiple home screens, 1110mAh batter, 64-MB of internal storage that users can expand to 32-GB via microSD, and FM radio. Both will use Nokia's Xpress Internet browser, which is expected to cut data use by 90 percent.
Pricing on the devices is $99 (excluding taxes).
While the 308 is dual SIM, handy for when traveling between network types, the 309 supports only a single SIM.
Other features on the devices include Facebook (Nasdaq: FB) and Twitter integration, Nokia messaging, Google's (Nasdaq: GOOG) YouTube, as well as 40 Electronic Arts (Nasdaq: EA) games.
Feature phones are key for Nokia. Last quarter, the cheaper devices outsold smartphones by seven-to-one, accounting for $2.96 billion of total revenue. Nokia also holds about 20 percent of the world's mobile phone market, trailing only Samsung, which holds about 21.6 percent of market share.
Though Nokia is aiming to make big strides with its upcoming Lumia 820/920 -- which runs on Microsoft's (Nasdaq: MSFT) new Windows Phone 8 platform -- keeping a solid portion of lower-end market share will allow Nokia holders to breathe a little easier moving forward.
Shares are up about 1 percent in early trading Tuesday. |
