Nokia announced a new low-end touchscreen addition to its Asha family, Asha 501, which is the first to run on a new version of the vendor’s Asha mass-market device platform. The troubled device maker also announced tools to enable developers to create apps targeting “sub-$100” devices using the new platform, stating that it “expects to sell 100 million of the new generation Asha smartphones over the coming years”. While the company’s smartphone woes have drawn significant attention during the last few years, its last set of quarterly reports showed that its mass-market devices business is not immune from increased competition from low-cost device makers focused in China and India. The firm has been particularly weak in the ultra low-cost touchscreen market, which the new Asha product family is designed to address.
