New Nokia Asha Phones Announced! Offers To Improve Ways To Work, Learn and Play

At the Mobile World Congress 2012 in Barcelona, Spain, Nokia added a new members of its popular feature phone line up, the touch and type Nokia Asha 202 and 203 and the QWERTY androit Nokia 302 to accelerate its capability to connect the next billion people to the internet.

Work - first Series 40 Asha phone to support Mail for Exchange

Learn - new Nokia Life services provide key information to young, urban consumers, coupled with Nokia’s cloud-based browser for faster discovery of the online world while paying less

Play - 40 free games available from EA worth EUR 75; plus preloaded Nokia Social application that enables a single sign-in to multiple communities

Designed to deliver a variety of affordable mobile experiences, the new offerings target three dimensions: Work, with Mail for Exchange support for the Nokia Asha 302; Learn, bringing new information services for young, urban consumers, and a fast, cloud-based browser that reduces internet access costs; and Play, with free EA games available on the Nokia Asha 202 and Asha 203.

Nokia Life benefits 50 million users

Nokia also announced an evolution of Nokia Life Tools, Nokia Life, which provides life-enhancing information across the range of Nokia Series 30 and Series 40 products. Now with additional relevant services, social elements and fresher look, it’s available first on the Nokia Asha 202 and 203 phones. Since its 2009 launch in India, the SMS-based service has expanded to China, Indonesia and Nigeria. To date, more than 50 million people have experienced its benefits.

Nokia Life delivers content in the areas of parenting, life skills, education, health, entertainment and agriculture. For example, Nokia Life can help parents focus on children’s physical, emotional and social growth needs, from birth to adolescence. People can also learn English using basic SMS communications, and enjoy ringtones, sport news and trivia.

Nokia Asha family expands

The Nokia Asha family has expanded rapidly since its debut, just four months ago, with four devices presented at Nokia World 2011. It’s now available in more than 100 markets globally and will be complemented by three devices announced today.

Nokia’s Asha 202 and 203 phones stand out with the combination of a traditional keypad with a 2.4- inch touch screen, ideal for browsing, scrolling and opening applications. The Asha 202 features Dual SIM Easy Swap technology with dedicated SIM manager to personalize the phone and save up to five SIM cards with unique information. Both devices come with a 2-megapixel camera, music player, FM radio, Nokia Browser, and Bluetooth connectivity, and can handle memory cards up to 32GB. Estimated retail price for each is about EUR 60, excluding taxes and subsidies, and both are expected to start shipping in the second quarter of 2012.

Nokia and EA have teamed on innovative ways to bring games to the next billion. The Nokia Asha 202 and 203 will be the first Series 40 devices to offer EA games. As a 60-day promotion at Nokia Store, the EUR 75 separate cost of an EA 40-game pack - including popular titles such as Tetris, Need for Speed, The Run and Bejeweled – will be automatically waived for buyers of either new model.

The Nokia Asha 302 is Nokia’s first Series 40 phone to support Mail for Exchange, giving people access to their emails, contacts and calendar on an exchange server. That and a stylish QWERTY keyboard make it ideal for young entrepreneurs and professionals seeking a beautifully designed phone. Additionally, the Nokia Asha connects to popular social networks and enables chatting through Whatsapp and other IM services. The Nokia Asha 302 is powered by a 1-GHz processor and supports 3.5G data speeds. It is available now for about EUR 95.

Nokia Browser helps consumers and operators to significantly cut costs

All three new devices provide a fast and affordable internet experience via Nokia’s cloud-accelerated Nokia Browser, which makes internet content easy to discover with its localized and personalized home page design and portal to thousands of web apps. In addition to its speed, the browser compresses data traffic up to 90 percent, meaning cost reductions for consumers and operators, who can have better network utilization. Nokia Browser has been rapidly adopted, with almost four new users around the world activating it every second. It is available today in more than 200 markets.

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Nokia Takes Mobile World Congress 2012 By Storm With The Roll Out Of New Mobile Devices and Services

Nokia today introduced a range of new products, services and partnerships at Mobile World Congress, setting the pace for 2012 and demonstrating rapid execution of its new strategic direction. The new strategy already has resulted in the adoption of Windows Phone as Nokia’s primary smartphone platform, major changes to its feature phones, and additional emphasis on location-based services with the launch of its Location & Commerce business.

“One year ago, we shared that Nokia was embarking on a new journey to build great mobile devices,” said Stephen Elop, president and CEO of Nokia. “Today, with our fourth Lumia device, smarter mobile phones and an array of new services, we are demonstrating that we can change the clock speed of Nokia.”

Lumia portfolio extends, availability expands

Nokia has extended the range of products with Windows Phone by introducing the Nokia Lumia 610, the most affordable Lumia yet, as well as targeting availability of the widely acclaimed Lumia 900 to additional markets beyond the U.S.

Aimed at young people who want an affordable introduction to Lumia and Windows Phone, the Nokia Lumia 610 provides easy access to social networks, web browsing, music, games, navigation and tens of thousands of apps in the Windows Phone Marketplace. It comes in four vibrant colors and will cost just €189, before taxes or subsidies, and is expected to begin shipping in the second quarter of 2012.

The Nokia Lumia 900, which launched in January as Nokia’s first LTE-enabled smartphone, will now be available in Dual Carrier HSPA for up 42.2 Mbps. The superior content experience of the phone’s 4.3 inch ClearBlack AMOLED display and large capacity battery will be available to more countries around the world.

Nokia announced Nokia Reading providing a single, integrated reading hub experience. Nokia Reading makes it easier and faster to enjoy news, books, and audio books including an extensive catalogue of local language reading material and the ability to access content offline.

The announcements cap a year in which Nokia introduced the Lumia 710, Lumia 800 and Lumia 900 to critical acclaim and ahead of schedule.

New era in smartphone imaging starts with Nokia 808 PureView

Nokia also today ushered in a new era in high end smartphone imaging. The Nokia 808 PureView is the first smartphone to feature exclusive Nokia PureView imaging technologies that will enable a range of high-end imaging experiences into Nokia products over the coming years.

The Nokia 808 PureView combines a large, high-resolution 41-megapixel sensor, Carl Zeiss optics and Nokia-developed pixel over-sampling technology. This means incredibly sharp, detailed images, superior low light performance and the capability to save images in compact file sizes for sharing in email, MMS and on social networks.

The Nokia 808 PureView also includes Nokia Rich Recording for CD-like quality audio recording, full HD 1080p video recording and playback, and exclusive Dolby Headphone technology to transform any stereo content into a personal surround sound experience over any headphones.

Asha ignites smarter feature phones

Nokia is further blurring the line between feature phones and smartphones, launching three new Asha devices for people who want to work, learn and play. Developed for urban consumers and entrepreneurs, the Nokia Asha 302 is a premium QWERTY device. It delivers a mobile office experience with push email and calendar, and contacts synchronization under the Mail for
Exchange support – a first for Nokia Series 40 devices.

Designed for easy access to social networks, the Nokia Asha 202 and 203 bring touchscreens to volume-priced products and a pack of 40 free Electronic Arts games. The Asha 202 also features Nokia’s Easy Swap Dual SIM technology, allowing people to simply swap between tariffs and get the best value from carriers.

Nokia is also differentiating itself by updating its popular Life Tools service, now called Nokia Life, that provides life-enhancing information across the range of Nokia Series 30 and Series 40 products, including the new Asha 202 and Asha 203. People in India, China, Indonesia and Nigeria will benefit from life skills, parenting, education, agriculture and entertainment services, delivered via SMS.

The new Asha devices complement the Nokia Asha range that is available now in more than 100 markets globally.

Going further, faster

In location-based services, Nokia and Groupon plan to offer market-leading location-sensitive discounts and deals. Nokia is also announcing a new version of Nokia Drive for Windows Phone that will come with full offline support for turn-by-turn navigation. Moving forward, Nokia Drive will also remember a personal commute, give advance traffic notice and automatically re-route to avoid jams.

Additionally, Nokia plans to release the Windows Phone version of Nokia Transport for door-to-door, underground, tram, suburban train, and bus directions in more than 500 cities and 45 countries.

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