New Delhi: The world's largest cellphone maker Nokia unveiled its first phones using Microsoft's Windows Phone software on Wednesday, hoping to kick-start a rescue of its ailing smartphone business.
The Nokia Lumia range of the company's first Windows Phone powered-devices include Nokia Lumia 800 and Nokia Lumia 710. The Finnish mobile phone giant also launched four other new mobile phones, the Nokia Asha 300, Nokia Asha 303, Nokia Asha 200 and Nokia Asha 201.
The Nokia Lumia 800 which was first shown in a leaked video months ago, looks very similar to its current N9 handset.
The Nokia Lumia 800 features a 3.7 inch AMOLED ClearBlack curved display and is powered by a 1.4 GHz processor with hardware acceleration and a graphics processor. The Nokia Lumia 800 contains an instant-share camera with Carl Zeiss optics, HD video playback, 16GB of internal user memory and 25GB of free SkyDrive storage for storing images and music. The estimated retail price for the Nokia Lumia 800 will be approximately 420 EUR, excluding taxes and subsidies.
The Nokia Lumia 710 is available with exchangeable back covers (black, white, cyan, fuchsia and yellow). It has the same 1.4 GHz processor as the Lumia 800. The estimated retail price for the Nokia Lumia 710 will be approximately 270 EUR, excluding taxes and subsidies. Both phones will be available in India before the end of 2011.
With an eye on the fast growing mobile phone market in developing countries such as India, Nokia has introduced a new family of phones called Asha (which means 'hope' in Hindi). These phones include features such as dual-SIM, local services and content and third-party apps. The Nokia Asha 303 and Asha 300 are powered by 1GHz processors and have support for 3G networks.
The Finnish company, left in the dust by Apple and Google in the booming smartphone market, decided to ditch its ageing Symbian platform in favour of Microsoft's software in a risky deal in February that spooked investors.
Nokia has not rushed with the new phones. Nimbler rivals HTC, Fujitsu and Samsung Electronics have beaten it with models using the latest Windows software, Mango. Nokia and Microsoft have said they would focus on close co-operation with operators to support the platform.
Nokia's market value has halved since February as investors are unsure whether it can ever regain the market share it has lost.
Its third-quarter results beat low expectations, sparking hopes that the company can survive a painful revamp, but smartphone sales still dropped 38 per cent from a year ago.
With Microsoft software, Nokia hopes to gain the kind of attention Apple and Google have attracted from software developers that enrich their devices.####
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