Nokia Unveils $99 Touch-screen Smartphone

NEW DELHI--Nokia Corp. (NOK), struggling to regain ground in the competitive smartphone market, unveiled a $99 touch-screen smartphone for the Indian and other emerging markets to help drive sales and boost its falling market share.

At a product launch event in New Delhi Thursday, Nokia said its Asha 501 will run on the new Asha platform.

The Finnish handset maker said the smartphone will run on a 2G network initially and it plans to expand the device for faster third-generation services.

Chief Executive Stephen Elop said the smartphone was built on the design inspired by the company's higher-end Lumia smartphone and is targeted at "young, socially inspired" people.

The smartphone has a 3.2 megapixel camera, weighs 98 grams and has a memory capacity of 4 gigabytes that can be expanded to 32 gigabytes. They also come in different colors including red, green, yellow and white, the company said in a statement.

Nokia, once the world's largest phone maker, has struggled to compete in the high-end smartphone market dominated by Apple Inc. and Samsung. Adding to its woes is stiff competition from Chinese manufacturers as well as other low-cost Indian phone makers such as Micromax Informatics Ltd.

Up until last year, the Finnish mobile company's last stronghold was India but it is seeing increasing threat from South Korean rival Samsung Electronics Co in the country.

Nokia held a 26% share of the 170 million handsets shipped to India in 2012, with Samsung following closely behind with 22% of the market, data from Singapore-based mobile research firm Canalys shows.

In the fourth quarter, Nokia ranked second globally with 18% of the market, down from 23.4% a year earlier. Samsung ranked first with 22.7% and Apple's market share rose to 9.2%.

Despite losing share to Samsung, Nokia's handset sales improved due to strong demand for its Asha series and Lumia Windows phones, Gartner said.

The launch of the device could potentially help Nokia regain its competitive edge against Samsung's low-end smartphones and tap into India's fast-growing market of consumers trading up from their more basic mobile phones, analysts said.

Write to Jai Krishna at [e-mail]

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