Nokia's secret is out: Launches $99 'Asha 501'; free Facebook

Nokia Asha 501 launched. Bundles free Facebook. Prices the phone at $99 and to be made available in June.

The full touch smart phone will run on a reengineered operating system the Asha Software Platform and according to CEO Stephen Elop will reinvent the affordable smart phone market.

Making the announcement in New Delhi in India Elop says the company will become the first smartphone to enter into a global partnership with Facebook. Which means anyone buying the new Asha 501 will be able to access Facebook for free. Nokia has already entered into an agreement with key network operators in India and a few other countries and are in discussion with several others across the globe.

Click to see gallery of Nokia launches new $99 phone

The Asha 501 is built with a 3-inch QVGA screen (320 x 240) and will come with a free 4GB micro SD card, a 3.2 megapixel back camera. The phone is however not 3G enabled and will work only on 2G and wifi.

The OS is fit and purpose designed to cater to the growing number of first time smart phone users.

The phone will come in six colours and can even type Malayalam.

“Performance isn’t just a feature. It is the only feature,” says Stephen Elop making the announcement.

The phone comes with several innovative features including seamless experience where you can share content from one phone to another by just placing them next to each other and another new feature called Nokia Express.

Speaking during the launch Elop says the Facebook partnership will currently be limited to Asha 501.

“The Facebook partnership begins with 501. At a later date we might think of extending it to other models. We are working with operators around the world,” he said.

When asked if Nokia will release a Qwerty model of Asha 501 he said, “We are watching the trend very closely. People are migrating from different form factors to touch.”

Vaughan Smith, VP, Mobile Partnerships, Facebook speaking during the event says the partnership will enable Facebook to reach the 1billion mark.

“Last week Facebook announced about its 750 million users. The biggest opportunity for us is to target the 5 billion people who are still not there,” he said.

Nokia announces in app purchases; Try & Buy Feature.

At Nokia app store you can now try out the app before you put your money into it.

The new feature along with in app purchases were announced today as part of the launch of the Asha 501 in India.

Announcing the introduction of Try & Buy, Sangeeta Bavi, Head - Developer Outreach at Nokia says “The feature is engrained in the Indian culture. We would like to try out anything before we buy. It works the same for an app as well. The feature will work on all our existing and new apps,” she says.

According to her Nokia is expecting a tremendous success of its app store with the Try & Buy feature.

Bavi also says the new OS will come with most major and essential apps and provides a massive opportunity for app developers.

“Developing apps for our new OS will provide app developers with an immense opportunity as it will work on all Asha series. Last year alone we had about 2 billion downloads. Reliance users in India alone have 77million downloads,” she says.

“A lot of developers around the world are continuing the join the million download club. All you need to have is just one codebase and an app built for Asha 501 will continue to work on all Asha series.

Nokia also announce the introduction of in app purchases and says it has developed multiple ways to support app developers.

“We at Nokia have ensured that we provide app developers with number of options. With in app purchases, developers can now sell an accessory or a new game from within an app.,” she says.

Nokia also introduced the Nokia ad exchange where developers working on free apps can have access to the top 120 ad agencies across the world with support in more than 200 countries. “With just one line of code your free app will be ad powered.  We expect to reach ten million phones to be sold during the first year and 100 million in coming years,” she added.

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