Nokia boosts mobile Net with Asha Touch

Manila, Philippines -  Nokia has taken another step toward connecting the next billion consumers when it unveiled the Asha Touch family of mobile devices in Bangkok recently.

The three new phone models  the Nokia Asha 305, Nokia Asha 306 and Nokia Asha 311  is set to take the full touch experience to new price points and further expand the successful Asha family.

To date, 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 redesigned touch user interface, combining the proven ease-of-use from Nokia’s heritage with digital design innovations specifically fit for the purpose.

The Nokia Asha 311 is a fast and fluid 3.5G capacitive touch-screen device powered by a 1GHz processor to provide a great Internet experience.

The 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 are accelerating our commitment to connect the next billion consumers,” said Mary McDowell, Nokia 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,” McDowell added.

These new devices take full advantage of the Nokia Browser 2.0, a major update which uses Nokia’s cloud technology to reduce data consumption by up to 90 percent, meaning that consumers can enjoy three times faster and cheaper Internet access in comparison to devices without cloud-accelerated browsing.

The Nokia Browser 2.0 delivers a richer and more interactive mobile experience while using less data than a standalone Internet connected app.

Users can easily stay connected with friends and family at the touch of a button as well as share files and links across their social networks.

Furthermore, the Nokia Browser’s Download Manager feature helps consumers manage external content easily, saving music, video or pictures on a memory card, while surfing the Internet.

The Asha family is also getting positive support from developers and consumers. From January to April, 42 percent of all content downloaded from Nokia Store was delivered to Asha and other Nokia devices based on the Java ecosystem.

Also designed to entertain, the Nokia Asha 305, Asha 306 and Asha 311 comes with 40 EA games which include titles like Tetris, Bejeweled, Need for Speed: The Run and Fifa 2012 ready for download.

The Nokia Asha 311 also comes with 15 levels of Angry Birds pre-loaded onto the phone, perfect for making the most of the touch screen and 1GHz processor.

The Nokia Asha 311 boasts of a bright and colorful, scratch-resistant capacitive glass screen with polarization filters ensuring users get the best experience from the unique and visually entertaining user interface.

It also features a 3.2MP camera and pre-installed Nokia Maps, in addition to the 15 level pre-bundled version of Angry Birds.

The Nokia Asha 305 is a fun and entertaining Easy Swap dual SIM phone, helping users make the most of their phone while retaining control of their costs.

The phone features a bright and colorful three-inch WQVGA resistive touch screen along with Bluetooth and Dual Band connectivity. It also carries a 2MP camera, Nokia Maps and the revolutionary Nokia Browser.

 The Nokia Asha 306 is the sister device to the Nokia Asha 305. Along with all the great features that come with its sister, the Nokia Asha 306 also provides WLAN and supports video streaming through both GPRS and WLAN, enabling users to stay connected while on the move.

The Nokia Asha 305 is expected to start shipping this second quarter, and the Nokia Asha 306 and Nokia Asha 311 in the third quarter.