Nokia launches Asha 501 smart phone revealing new OS Operating System
On May 8,2013,the brand new Nokia Asha 501 smart mobile was released by Nokia in India. As one of the new Asha series products, Nokia 501 is specifically targeted at low-and-middle end market with price of $99 only.Except for the dominant characteristic of superb long battery standby time of up to 48 hours, this Asha 501 has got its own overwhelming feature, that is it will be powered by a refreshed Asha operating system (OS) featuring software capabilities from Smartphone.”The new Asha platform provides developers with an open, standards-based environment for creating quality apps for consumers. Developers can create apps for the Nokia Asha 501 that will be compatible with future Asha platform-based devices,” Nokia stated.It is said that around 100,000,000 smart phones including Asha 501 will be shipped with this brand new Asha Operating System in the near few years.
Much like the simple but nice design of the previous Nokia low-end smart phones, this Asha 501 is more or less the same except that it is a little lighter with only 98 grams. As seen in the picture, it is featured with 3-inch display screen with 320*240 resolution.There are six different colors for customers’ choice including red, green, blue, yellow, white and black. From June, consumers can buy this phone from 60 operators and distributors in over 90 countries. The phone provides a 4GB built-in storage card and another external storage card of up to 32GB high capacity. Most importantly, it is equipped with WIFI function which is not supported in the previous product versions.There are two versions of the sim card:Single-card-one-standby and Dual-cards-two-standby.
The unique key feature of this new software is its ability for users to swipe between two screens: the traditional home screen to launch apps and phone functions, and the “Fastlane” skin–a brand new user-interface design similar to HTC Blink Feed which lists the recently accessed contacts, social networks, and apps etc and enables users to preview conveniently.
The newly launched Asha OS is a departure from the previous iteration which was based on Nokia’s Series 40 operating system. This figure reflects “intense competitive industry dynamics as well as lower seasonal demand”.
Nokia said the the Asha 501 owners who are also Airtel subscribers in India or Africa will be able to access Facebook as well–whether via the app or browser–without additional data charges.However, such free service will be available for a limited time only.
On the other hand, other important partners like WhatsApp claimed that they will release some applications in this refreshed Asha Operating System in the future.
