The Nokia Asha 501 has finally arrived in Indian and is available is available at the company’s India online store with a price tag of Rs 5,199. The device was officially launched in May.

The dual-SIM device with a three-inch, capacitive touchscreen and a single 'back' button comes in just two parts: a durable, removable casing and the scratch-resistant glass display It is available in six colours.  The compact new Asha weighs only 98 grams. It comes with scratch-resistant glass screen and changeable covers stand up to life.

Nokia at the time of launch last month had said that the Asha 501 will start shipping in June, and will be available through around 60 operators and distributors in over 90 countries.

Nokia which has seen a tremendous increase in consumer demand for apps for its Asha smartphones, as witnessed by the growth of downloads in Nokia Store, is planning to sell 100 million of the new generation Asha smartphones over the coming years, beginning with the Nokia Asha 501.
 
If one goes by words of Stephen Elop, president and chief executive of Nokia Corp, the company has a lot of work to do to catch up with Apple Inc.’s iPhone and Samsung Galaxy in the more expensive smartphones market.
 
“In absolute terms, we are at lower levels, and we are starting from zero in those price bands. We have to build that. Samsung and Apple have been building that for a number of years in the Indian market and we have to do that,” Elop said.
 
Nokia also announced the availability of Nokia Xpress Now, a new Web application that recommends content based on location, preferences and trending topics. It will be available via the Browser homepage or as a download from Nokia Store.

Many of the most popular applications are already available or in development for the Nokia Asha platform, including CNN, eBuddy, ESPN, Facebook, Foursquare, Line, LinkedIn, Nimbuzz, Pictelligent, The Weather Channel, Twitter, WeChat, World of Red Bull and games from Electronic Arts, Gameloft, Indiagames, Namco-Bandai and Reliance Games.

To lure the customers Nokia has teamed up with Facebook and Airtel to offer data-free access to the standalone Facebook app, as well as the mobile site m.facebook.com.

Nokia said that by the end of second quarter, current Airtel subscribers in Africa and India will be able to enjoy unlimited, data-free access to Facebook from their Nokia Asha 501 for a limited period of time.
 
The struggling Finnish handset giant one led Indian market with a 80% share but lost to cheaper phones from Chinese companies which shrunk its share to about 20%. The range Asha has since helped the company increase its market share to about 22%,

Nokia last month had said that India is a major manufacturing site for it, serving customers across the world. It said that India’s importance can be seen from the fact that it picked New Delhi to launch this new device. “It’s just symbolic of how important this market is and the opportunity as well. We have made substantial investments in our Chennai facility.”

The new Asha comes with the Nokia Xpress Browser pre-loaded, which compresses Internet data by up to 90%.

SPECIFICATIONS

Dimensions

Height: 99.2 mm
Width: 58 mm
Thickness: 12.1 mm
Weight: 98 g
 
Display

Display size: 3 ''
Display features: Brightness control, RGB Stripe, Nokia Glance screen, Screen double tap
 
Photography

Main camera sensor: 3.2 MP
Camera resolution: 2048 x 1536 pixels
 
Power management

Maximum 2G standby time: 1152 h
Maximum 2G talk time: 17 h
Music playback time: 56 h

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