Nokia unwrapped two devices today in a bid to connect the “next billion to the Internet.” Its the Nokia 110 (above) and Nokia 112 (below) that are spec’d similarly but differ on the design front and talk time. Both phones support dual-SIM functionality with Easy Swap technology that allows switching of SIM cards without having to open the phone, features 40 games from EA and comes with Nokia Browser that compresses data and reduces data consumption by 90 percent. The Nokia 112 also comes pre-loaded with eBuddy instant messenger app.

Both phones have a 1.8-inch 128×160 pixel display, FM Radio, improved VGA camera, 3.5mm headphone jack, Bluetooth and microSD card slot supporting up to 32GB. Nokia 110 will offer a talk time of 10.5 hours whereas Nokia 112 boasts a talk time for up to 14 hours.

Nokia epxects to ship Nokia 110 in this quarter for 35 euros while Nokia 112 will arrive in next quarter for 38 euros.

Press Release

Nokia has filed a lawsuit against HTC, RIM and Viewsonic in United States and Germany. Nokia says these companies infringe a number of their patents related dual function antennas, power management, as well as on the software front like app stores, multitasking, navigation, conversational message display, dynamic menus, data encryption and retrieval of email attachments on a mobile device.

“Many of these inventions are fundamental to Nokia products,” said Louise Pentland, chief legal officer. “We’d rather that other companies respect our intellectual property and compete using their own innovations, but as these actions show, we will not tolerate the unauthorized use of our inventions.”

Press Release

Nokia has announced the availability of its 808 PureView phone with India and Russia being the first recipient countries of the 41MP phone. It will be available from this month at an undisclosed price and will allow users to click high-resolution pictures with the integrated Car Zeiss optics or full HD 1080p video at 4X lossless zoom.

808 PureView is powered by Nokia Belle OS, 4-inch 640×360 ClearBlack AMOLED display, Wi-Fi, Belle OS with FP1, Bluetooth 3.0, NFC, Dolby support, GPS, 16GB internal memory and 1400mAh battery.

Press Release

Nokia has made Asha 202 official for the Indian market. The dual SIM phone boasts a touchscreen display as well as an alphanumeric keyboard and is bundled with 40 games from EA. Priced at just Rs. 4,149, Asha 202 comes with a 2.4-inch touchscreen display, 2MP camera, music player, FM Radio, Bluetooth, microSD card slot up to 32GB and dual SIM Easy Swap technology that will save up to five different SIM profiles.

Consumers purchasing the Asha 202 will get 100MB of free data for the first six months. This offer is valid on Aircel, Airtel, Reliance, Tata Docomo and Vodafone.

Given the strong sales of Samsung’s Galaxy smartphones and decline of market share for Nokia, I guess this was inevitable. Anyways, research firm Strategy Analytics claims that Samsung has shipped 93.5 million handsets in a single quarter managing to grab a market share of 25.4 percent which is way more than what Nokia shipped in the last quarter. In comparison, Nokia shipped only 82.7 million units.

This milestone has ended Nokia’s 14-year stint at the top as the world’s numero uno handset maker.

Meanwhile, Samsung also announced their first quarter results today, which was pretty much positive thanks to the sales of Galaxy smartphones.

[Via WSJ]

Nokia’s affordable Lumia phone will be available in Asia as early as next week. The Lumia 610 will make its way first in Philippines and China whereas Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan and Vietnam will get it in the following weeks.

Nokia says Lumia 610 is a stepping stone for users who want to experience Windows Phone at a cheap price. Lumia 610 runs Windows Phone 7.5 OS and adds features like Wi-Fi tethering, flip-to-silence and apps like Nokia Maps, Drive, Transport etc.

Hardware-wise, Lumia 610 comes with a 3.7-inch WVGA display, Wi-Fi, 256MB RAM, A-GPS, 5MP camera, 720p HD video recording support, FM Radio and 1300mAh battery.

Press Release

Nokia may have shifted its smartphone strategy to Windows Phone but the Finnish company is still innovating on the Symbian front. Take Nokia 808 for instance. It is the world’s first smartphone with a 41 megapixel camera sensor and runs on Belle OS. Luckily for us, Nokia gave us an early glimpse of what the device holds before the retail release.

Nokia 808’s claim to fame is its camera sensor and PureView imaging technology, which is Nokia’s solution to create very high-resolution pictures in a small size. To cut the long story short, 808’s camera is really powerful for a phone. Users can activate the camera by pressing the dedicated camera button even when the phone is locked. Now let me tell you, the camera activation is really fast. And clicking pictures simultaneously is even faster. Nokia gives a lot of camera options to tinker with to give the best possible result. On the video front, the phone can record videos in full HD resolution and allows up to 4X lossless zoom.

Rounding up the specs sheet is the 4-inch 640×360 ClearBlack AMOLED display, Wi-Fi, Belle OS with FP1, Bluetooth 3.0, NFC, Dolby support, GPS, 16GB internal memory and 1400mAh battery.

All said and done, no matter how exciting the PureView imaging technology is, Nokia 808’s success depends on how Nokia prices it. Nokia hasn’t revealed the exact pricing but the international price is being pegged around 450 euros.

Nokia unwrapped the first NFC-equipped Lumia device yesterday in the form of Lumia 610. Nokia says the most affordable Lumia will be able to take advantage of the budding short-range communication technology with Nokia NFC accessories, NFC tags and is certified for contactless payments for MasterCard PayPass and Visa payWave technology.

Rest of the specifications include a 3.7-inch WVGA display, Windows Phone 7.5 OS, 5MP AF camera with 720p HD video recording, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS and bunch of Nokia apps like Maps, Drive, Music etc.

The Lumia 610 NFC will be available from Q3 2012, apparently closer to the Olympics via Orange.

Press Release

Nokia today announced their Windows Phones for Chinese market. Powered by Windows Phone 7.5, the 800C is the first CDMA-based WP device that will be available on China Telecom. Nokia 800C is similar to Lumia 800 but comes with Chinese language support and apps tailored for the world’s biggest telecom market. The Nokia 800C will be available in China from early April for 3599RMB.

Nokia also announced the Nokia 610C that will be launched in second quarter this year aimed at young consumers.

Press Release

Nokia’s design chief Marko Ahtisaari has confirmed that the Finnish company is working on their iteration of a tablet. In an interview with Finnish magazine Kauppalehti Optio, Ahtisaari revealed that he’s been contributing a third of its time on the device.

He didn’t delve into further details regarding its availability or other features.

Earlier this year, Nokia’s CEO, Stephen Elop hinted on a Nokia tablet but with a differentiation from the hordes of tablets available in the market.

Nokia’s tablet could come out this year running Microsoft’s Windows 8.

[Via Economic Times]