Is Nokia making a comeback? Will it play on the nostalgia of the masses? Does it plan to target Asian countries first? We finally have answers to these questions, as HMD Global, the new owners of the brand name Nokia announced a new phone, the Nokia 150. The Nokia 150 and 150 dual-SIM will launch globally in the January- March quarter. Interestingly, it is a Series 30+ device which looks almost the same as the Nokia 216 which was launched in September this year. The Nokia 2016 was Microsoft’s last device. The new feature phones will come to India at a price less than Rs 2,000.
The new Nokia 150 has been priced at $26 and features a 2.4-inch screen and a VGA camera. The phone with its whopping 22 hours of battery life, reminds us of the times when the charge would last for a long long time. The phone will be manufactured by Foxconn’s subsidiary FIH. It had acquired the Nokia feature phone department from Microsoft in May and for the business in IMEA, PAC and Europe’s distribution in 2017.
HMD which has a 10-year brand licensing agreement with Nokia has also announced the release of Nokia-branded Android smartphones which came as a great news for fans. The smartphones are expected to be unveiled at the Mobile World Congress, scheduled to be held in February. HMD, in a statement, said, “With a familiar user interface, the new devices respond to consumer demand for great quality, affordability and ease of use… The Nokia 150 and Nokia 150 dual SIM will be available at an estimated retail price of USD 26 before local taxes and subsidies.”
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The features of the phone, like the FM radio and MP3 player along with games like ‘Snake’ and Nitro Racing, provides some kind of deeply-rooted nostalgia. With an overall mobile phone market (smartphone and feature phones) shipment of 72.3 million units in the last quarter, India is one of the fastest growing smartphone markets in the world and still has a huge market for feature phones. The company expects that India will play an important role in Nokia’s ‘next phase of journey’ in a market dominated by Samsung and Apple.
