Nokia announces 5 new handsets aimed at developing markets

Financially, things are far from coming up roses for Nokia and the third quarter results are worrying indeed. Perhaps in an attempt to stop the free fall and finally hit rock bottom, the company has just announced 5 new cell phones, aimed at the developing markets worldwide. According to the data from other manufacturers, it´s exactly their growing sales on these markets that have tipped the scales in their favor and helped them register positive results.

The more interesting handsets of the five are the Nokia 2220 slide and Nokia 2690. Information about the former got leaked on the Internet not that long time ago and now the existence of the cell phone has been officially confirmed. The likeable cell phone will be available for just 45 EUR before taxes and subsidies. In terms of extra features, it will come with Bluetooth, VGA camera, MMS, Ovi Mail support and allow its owners to record FM radio broadcasts. The Nokia 2220 slide is the only one of the announced five that is scheduled for this year.

The Nokia 2690 has virtually the same functionality, but sports a 3.5mm jack and will come boxed with a 2GB microSD expansion card. Supposedly, with a price tag of 54 EUR (before taxes and subsidies) it will be the most expensive and should hit the shelves at the beginning of 2010.


The other three, the Nokia 1280, 1616 and 1800 are entry level cell phones that will set back their future owners with 20, 24 and 26 EUR respectively (again before taxes and subsidies). They will feature dust-resistant numeric keypad, anti-scratch surface coating, flash-light and FM radio, but only the Nokia 1616 and 1280 will offer the comfort of a 3.5mm jack. To offset the decreased functionality, the manufacturer will equip all the three with robust batteries that should be able to provide up to 8.5 hours of continuous talk time and keep the devices operational for no less but 22 days in standby. According to the official information, these three are to roll out in Q1 2010.

source: Nokia