After the announcement of Mozilla, also Nokia aims straight at the market of emerging countries.
From the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the Finnish company is launching a new battery of low-cost smartphones. Three models to connect "the next billion people". Despite the fresh marriage with Microsoft, the devices will be based on the operating system Android of Google.
I'm the Nokia X, X+ and XL, the basic model costs 89 euros. Like Amazon's Kindle tablets, the Nokia Xs work with a customized version of the 'open source' Android system: that is, they support apps from this platform but also integrate some services borrowed from the Nokia-Microsoft partnership.
The new devices were presented by Stephen Elop, executive vice president of Devices & Services at Nokia, underlining that this line will be available globally but aims at emerging markets.
Nokia X and X+, available in different colors, both have a 4-inch 'touch' screen. The X+ also has extra memory. Nokia XL, on the other hand, has a 5-inch display and more advanced features. The prices are, as the company points out, "democratic": respectively, they start at 89, 99 and 109 euros. Nokia X+ and XL will arrive in the second quarter, while Nokia X is available immediately with a global launch.
But the charge of low cost does not end there. Stephen Elop also presented the Nokia 220, a mobile phone with access to social applications (29 euros), and the new model Asha, the 230, at 45 euros. In the future, he added, even high-end smartphones Lumia (those fruit of the union with Microsoft) will become cheaper.
