Nokia on Wednesday launched three new phone models the Nokia Asha 305, Nokia Asha 306 and Nokia Asha 311 to further expand the successful Asha family, first introduced in October 2011.

Nokia said that currently there are 10 Asha devices available in more than 130 markets, providing young, social consumers with a choice of phones to match their own lifestyle.

These latest phones have been designed to provide an incredibly rich, smartphone like experience to consumers who want to be set free from excessive data consumption costs and short battery life. The Nokia Asha 305, Asha 306 and Asha 311 offer a new, fully re-designed touch user interface, combining the proven ease of use from Nokia's heritage with digital design innovations specifically fit for the purpose.

Nokia Asha 311 is a fast and fluid 3.5G capacitive touchscreen device, powered by a 1GHz processor to provide a great internet experience. The bright and edgy Nokia Asha 305 is a fun and affordable phone, featuring the exclusive Easy Swap dual SIM. Its sister, the Nokia Asha 306, is a single SIM model, and becomes Nokia's most affordable Wi-Fi handset to date.

"By introducing the Asha Touch phones to the market, we're accelerating our commitment to connect the next billion consumers," said Mary T. McDowell, Nokia's executive vice president for Mobile Phones. "These phones deliver on what young, urban people value most a great looking device; and an intuitive and affordable experience for connecting to the internet, to their friends, and to a world of entertainment, web apps and content."

The new devices take full advantage of the Nokia Browser 2.0, a major recent update which uses Nokia's cloud technology to reduce data consumption by up to 90%, meaning that consumers can enjoy faster and cheaper internet access. Web sites load up to three times faster in comparison to devices without cloud accelerated browsing, making it simple for users to find and select from more than 10,000 web apps available for download. They deliver a richer and more interactive consumer experience whilst using less data than a stand-alone internet connected app.

"Nokia is taking another interesting step forward in connecting consumers to the Internet, seeking to improve their experience through a new touch user interface that is allowing the company to compete in new mass market price bands. The mass market is a competitive segment, but we believe Nokia's upgraded Asha portfolio has included an attractive package that can enable consumers to have lower running costs, taking advantage of things like its compressed browser and a long life battery", says Neil Mawston, Executive Director of devices research at Strategy Analytics. "It is also interesting to see how Nokia is promoting its Asha strategy with global launches taking place in important high growth markets such as Asia. Nokia resonates well there and the response from local consumers is likely to be positive".