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Nokia Puts WhatsApp Hard Key On $72 Asha 210 For Asia, Africa; Qwerty S40 Handset Gets Facebook Button In Europe, Latam

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Nokia has announced another handset in its Series 40-based Asha portfolio of low end mobiles which compete with the budget end of Android and cheap BlackBerrys. The 2G-plus-Wi-Fi Asha 210, due to ship before the end of Q2, packs a physical Qwerty keyboard and comes painted in Nokia’s now trademark eye-popping colours (yellow, cyan, magenta), plus black and white. But the most notable addition to this BlackBerry-esque device is a hardware key on the front that short-cuts to messaging app WhatsApp — which, extending the BlackBerry comparison, is the phone’s BBM replacement.

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As well as the ability to fire up WhatsApp by long pressing on this dedicated key, Nokia said Asha 210 buyers will get a free subscription to the messaging service for the lifetime of the device. On the Series 40 platform, WhatsApp normally charges a $ 0.99 annual fee after a first year of free use. Last week the messaging service said it now has north of 200 million monthly active users (this compares to BBM’s more modest 60 million). Tapping into the hugely popular social messaging craze is clearly Nokia’s aim here.

Nokia describes the Asha 210′s WhatsApp hardware key as a “world first”, although we’ve seen the mobile maker (and others) stick a Facebook button on a phone before. But before you start wondering how displeased Facebook is going to be with Nokia for two-timing it with a deadly messaging rival, the handset actually comes in two social messaging flavours, with a second variant having a dedicated Facebook key (shown below, on the black handset) instead of a WhatsApp button.

The two Asha 210 social flavours — which also each come in single SIM/dual SIM variants – won’t be offered together in the same market but will rather be region specific, presumably corresponding to where the respective services are most popular. Neil Broadley, marketing director for Nokia’s mobile phones division, told TechCrunch the WhatsApp device will generally target Asia-Pac and Middle East & Africa, while the Facebook flavour will mostly be heading to Europe and Latin America. He also confirmed that neither device will be sold in North American.

Both of our partners are hugely successful around the world.

“On a market by market basis we will have either WhatsApp or Facebook,” said Broadley. “Both of our partners are hugely successful around the world and as we go on a market by market basis, some of our market teams would like to have the WhatsApp variant, some would like to have the Facebook variant. And of course we already have the Nokia Asha 205 on a global basis with the Facebook hard key there as well.”

Broadley added that Nokia is looking at the possibility of making a third variant of the Asha 210 — specifically targeting the Chinese market — with another, as yet undetermined social service loaded on the hard key (China has a variety of homegrown social services that outstrip the popularity of global offerings, such as microblogging service Sina Weibo vs Twitter). Nokia certainly has work to do to win back buyers in China. In its Q1 results last week, China saw the biggest drop of any of Nokia’s regions in terms of sales by value and volume, with $ 334 million in sales in Greater China, down 56% on the year ago quarter.

Low end hardware + social software

Aside from differing social shortcuts, the Asha 210 variants have identical hardware and software, with a sub-1Ghz chip; 2 megapixel rear camera plus a dedicated camera key on the front of the device (in addition to the WhatsApp/Facebook key plus standard nav/call keys); Nokia’s Slam Bluetooth-sharing data transfer tech and its hot-swap SIM system; plus a rubberised full Qwerty keyboard which recycles the pillowed keys of 2008′s Nokia E71. The keyboard also includes shortcut keys for turning on/off Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.

On the software front, the device comes with WhatsApp, Facebook and Twitter preloaded; support for YouTube streaming and web apps; a ‘Games Gift’ of 15 free downloadable “premium” games & apps from the Nokia Store; plus Nokia’s neat voice-guided self-portrait feature, which gets around the lack of a front-facing lens by helping users align a self-portrait when they can’t see the screen.

Nokia’s earlier Facebook-button-packing phone, the full Qwerty Asha 205, was announced in November last year. At the time, the company’s decision to introduce a phone with a dedicated Fb button revived a 2011 trend which, for the majority of last year, appeared to have run its course — without, apparently, covering any of the device maker particpants (including HTC, Orange and Vodafone) in huge heaps of gold.

Asked about sales of the Asha 205, Nokia said it has not broken out any numbers for the model but added that the number of Facebook activations for the device is “significantly higher” than for the average Asha family device. Whatever the sales figures, Nokia clearly believes there is more gold to be mined from low end mobiles by associating its hardware with the biggest brands of the social messaging space.

Asha vs Android: Show me the money

The Asha 210 — along with the entire Nokia Asha range — targets developing markets and cost-conscious consumers, which explains its focus on seeking ways to reduce not just the initial outlay but also the total cost of ownership, while simultaneously amping up its core social offering by making sure it can provide access to big name apps and allow for easy social photo-sharing, as Android does.

The Asha 210 will have a $ 72 price-tag (before taxes and subsidies). The price-tag puts it in touching distance of budget Androids and while the S40 platform is not as user friendly, flexible or as app-rich as Android, Nokia has been working to strength its competitiveness against Android’s low end with additions such as its cloud-based data-compressing Xpress Browser, which ekes out up to three times as much data as non-compression browsers to help keep the user’s data costs down, plus offers such as ‘Games Gift’ and the free WhatsApp subscription.

As with other Asha devices, the 210 also boasts a long battery life — of up to 46 days on standby, and around 12 hours talk time. Nokia noted that it is using push notification technology to reduce battery drain caused by the Asha 210 checking for WhatsApp/Facebook updates. Update checking is done by Nokia in the cloud, with any new info pushed out to the user’s phone when it arrives.

One more thing…

Nokia and WhatsApp are about to hold an online Q&A about the launch of the Asha 2010 so we’ll be checking for any interesting tidbits that come out of the discussion to add as an update below. Currently, around the world, there is still plenty of regional diversity across messaging and social services – messaging apps are especially fragmented. Many of these apps inevitably compete with and come into conflict with social networking giant Facebook, which wants to own all the world’s chatter. And with Facebook having just launched its app-sidelining Android skin, social challengers such as WhatsApp are likely to be keen to find ways to increase their own visibility on mobile. Having your brand stamped on the outside of a phone sounds like a great place to start.

Updates from the Q&A, with Nokia’s Broadley and Neeraj Arora, business development, at WhatsApp:

On whose idea the WhatsApp hard key was, Nokia’s or WhatsApp’s… Broadley: “We have an ongoing relationship with WhatsApp that spans a range of Nokia Asha and other Nokia products. We are both really excited about this opportunity.”

On whether the WhatsApp hard key will be exclusive to Nokia devices… Arora & Broadley: “We are very excited to bring a dedicated WhatsApp button to Asha 210 and we will take consumer feedback for future consideration.”

On whether Nokia will bundle WhatsApp’s software with all Asha devices… Broadley: “We already bundle WhatsApp with many Nokia Asha family devices and are working on extending it to as many Nokia phones as possible.”

On what evidence there is consumers want social messaging hard keys on phones, or whether they just want easy access to lots of apps & services… Broadley: “With the Nokia Asha 210 we’ve worked hard to give people the best of both worlds. People have access to a dedicated hardware button, preloaded social networks ready to go right out of the box, and access to the Nokia Store to download and install more.”

On WhatsApp’s support for dual SIM devices… Arora: “The launch of Asha 210 does signify WhatsApp’s availability on Dual SIM devices. We are working on extending it to other Dual SIM devices.”

On the differences between the Asha 210 and Nokia’s earlier Facebook button phone, the Asha 205… Arora & Broadley: “There is WhatsApp deep linking into social share gallery and there is more to come.”

On the Asha 210′s battery performance… Broadley: “We have a really high quality Nokia 1200 mAh battery in the Nokia Asha 210. The software really helps get great battery life — for example we have something called Nokia Notifications which works in the cloud to check for your social network updates, then pushes them to the phone. This stops the individual apps having to continually check for updates — saving battery.”

On Nokia’s approach to phone design… Broadley: ”Starting with the Nokia 206 announced just before Christmas we’ve been progressively uniting the Nokia portfolio under a single, coherent design language… We have one stunning design approach across the Nokia range.”

On whether Nokia could introduce a Lumia product with a physical Qwerty to differentiate its smartphones from rivals’… Broadley: “We don’t comment on future plans.”

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$25 Raspberry Pi Model A Now Shipping In Asia, After Landing In Europe Last Month – Heading Stateside Soon

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The $ 25 Model A Raspberry Pi has gone on sale in Asia, following its launch in Europe last month – suggesting a U.S. landing can’t be too far off for the most affordable of the Pi Foundation’s two low-cost microcomputers. One of the Foundation’s distributors, RS Components, said today it is now shipping the Model A Pi in Asia.

Speaking to TechCrunch at the end of last month, Raspberry Pi founder, Eben Upton, said the not-for-profit organisation had completed the paperwork required to kick off global sales of the Model A, adding that it and “hope[d] to be able to enable these within the next couple of weeks”.

The $ 25 Model A is the most affordable Pi in the Foundation’s microcomputing arsenal, a full ten dollars cheaper than the original Model B. To get the price down, the unit has half the RAM (256MB) of the second revision Model B, only one USB port and no Ethernet connection. It also consumes less power, making it suitable for remote battery-powered applications — although it can still support a ‘home media centre’ use-case too, according to the Foundation.

Asked about early sales of the Model A Pi at the end of February, Upton said: “Early indications are that we’ve been selling between 5,000 and 10,000 units per week across the two distributors: so, roughly a quarter of the sales rate of Model Bs.”

“It will be interesting to see whether these sales have displaced Model B sales, or have grown the market,” he added.

In January, Raspberry Pi passed the one million Model B sales mark — a far cry from the founders’ original estimates of a few thousand units. The Pi was conceived as a tool to get kids learning to code – but has also proved popular with big kids who like to tinker. And with Google.

As well as being used for powering DIY gadgets, the Pi has had plenty of software ported over to it — including classic first-person shooter Quake, block-building community game Minecraft – and for those who really want to relive the old days of computing: a DOS (PC) emulator, rpix86 (shown below running a benchmark):

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$25 Raspberry Pi Model A Now Shipping In Asia, After Landing In Europe Last Month – Heading Stateside Soon

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Author: Tiffany Shoman

The $ 25 Model A Raspberry Pi has gone on sale in Asia, following its launch in Europe last month – suggesting a U.S. landing can’t be too far off for the most affordable of the Pi Foundation’s two low-cost microcomputers. One of the Foundation’s distributors, RS Components, said today it is now shipping the Model A Pi in Asia.

Speaking to TechCrunch at the end of last month, Raspberry Pi founder, Eben Upton, said the not-for-profit organisation had completed the paperwork required to kick off global sales of the Model A, adding that it and “hope[d] to be able to enable these within the next couple of weeks”.

The $ 25 Model A is the most affordable Pi in the Foundation’s microcomputing arsenal, a full ten dollars cheaper than the original Model B. To get the price down, the unit has half the RAM (256MB) of the second revision Model B, only one USB port and no Ethernet connection. It also consumes less power, making it suitable for remote battery-powered applications — although it can still support a ‘home media centre’ use-case too, according to the Foundation.

Asked about early sales of the Model A Pi at the end of February, Upton said: “Early indications are that we’ve been selling between 5,000 and 10,000 units per week across the two distributors: so, roughly a quarter of the sales rate of Model Bs.”

“It will be interesting to see whether these sales have displaced Model B sales, or have grown the market,” he added.

In January, Raspberry Pi passed the one million Model B sales mark — a far cry from the founders’ original estimates of a few thousand units. The Pi was conceived as a tool to get kids learning to code – but has also proved popular with big kids who like to tinker. And with Google.

As well as being used for powering DIY gadgets, the Pi has had plenty of software ported over to it — including classic first-person shooter Quake, block-building community game Minecraft – and for those who really want to relive the old days of computing: a DOS (PC) emulator, rpix86 (shown below running a benchmark):

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Sony unveils mid-range Xperia SP and L, due in Europe and Asia this spring

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Author: Ian Simpson

Xperiasp_1020_large

Sony has actually revealed a pair of new mid-range Android smartphones, the Xperia SP and L. The SP is the more fascinating of the pair: it matches in 2012′s flagship mobile phones virtually spec-for-spec, with a 4.6-inch 720p screen, 1.7 GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 processor, and an 8-megapixel camera. Sadly, it additionally matches in 2012′s flagships with its OS– it runs the year-old Android 4.1, instead of the current version, 4.2.

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StatCounter’s iOS Web Traffic Measurement Reveals Apple’s Asia Appeal May Be Waning

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Apple ’ s iPhone could possibly be dealing with a downturn in overall consumer interest in essential markets consisting of Singapore and Hong Kong, according to a report from Reuters based on StatCounter traffic figures from this past weekend. StatCounter found that around 3 million internet sites for which it oversees traffic, Apple ’ s share of mobile gadgets represented in the general mix in Singapore dropped from 72 percent in January last year to HALF this month, with Android climbing up from 20 percent to 43 percent in the exact same time frame.

There is great information, nevertheless: Southeast Asia is taking on smartphones at a really fast clip, with customers enhancing their buying of those sorts of devices 78 percent in between September 2011 and September 2012, Reuters states. That implies that even if Apple is getting less of the pie in trend-setting cities like Hong Kong, it ’ s still most likely not in hazard of seeing its general customer growth slow all that much in Asia in non-relative terms. Still, in Hong Kong, iOS traffic consider 30 percent of traffic gauged by StatCounter, below 45 percent one year back, and Android is now up to around two-thirds of all traffic.

Apple makes no bones about how vital the Asia-Pacific market is to its company; the company presented brand-new reporting practices that break out Greater China sales by themselves in its newest profits report, in order to better represent that area ’ s expanding contribution to the business. Greater China ’ s contribution to Apple ’ s bottom line swollen vs. the year ago quarter in its Q1 fiscal 2013, expanding profits 67 percent. On a quarterly basis it was up, too, but simply 26 percent, where income grew by 47 percent sequentially in the Americas, the next slowest mover.

There are good reasons Apple ’ s development could have slowed in Greater China, consisting of the fact that the iPhone 5 was just launched for much of the area late in the quarter, and the fact that the holiday doesn ’ t necessarily spike sales as much as it finishes the Americas, Europe and various other markets. And Apple CEO Tim Cook still singled out China as a “ hyper-growth ” market for the brand in a City center meeting that was simply held at the Cupertino Apple HQ, according to 9t05Mac.

Talk of Apple “ losing its cool ” in China and various other parts of Asia isn ’ t new, therefore far, in spite of market share reports, revenues are not reflecting any mass exodus far from its devices. But Android is absolutely pushing on in those markets, which ’ s a trend Apple definitely has to enjoy and attempt to neutralize.

3 From Asia – Android Dominates in China, Samsung Drops $1.8B & AR Maps in Japan

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Author: JohnnyBells

asian tech news www.revision3.com Want to know what’s going on in Asia? We’ve got three tech from Asia to keep you up todate. Today we look at Android marketshare in China, Samsung’s expanding OLED plans and an augmented reality app that makes navigation fun.
Video Rating: 4 / 5

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HTC One X Android 4.1 rollout begins in Asia and Europe

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Author: Natalie Wood

ATT One X Stock White 1200

HTC announced that Android 4.1 would present for its One X and One S devices in October, and it appears like the business has actually hit one of its targets: Android Central reports that the Jelly Bean update has already started rolling out for clients with the HTC One X in Asia and Europe. As we learned earlier this month, the Android update will also include HTC’s Sense 4 + skin, 2 brand-new Gallery app views, a rejuvenated HTC Watch app, and Google Now. There’s no word on when the update will hit in the US, however we’ve asked HTC to verify its rollout routine and will update you as we receive more details.

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YouTube will live stream HD Olympics coverage to 64 territories in Asia, Africa

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Author: Christen Arquette

We’ve already heard about broadcast plans for the 2012 London Olympics in the US on NBC and UK from BBC, but what about other areas of the world? YouTube, which is partnering with NBC on streaming in the US, has also struck a deal with the International Olympic Committee to stream 2,200 hours on 10 live high definition feeds to viewers in 64 territories across Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. That only extends to countries where the digital rights haven’t already been snapped up, but it does mean that in many regions people will have access to a level of coverage that has never been available at all before on computers, phones and tablets. The English language commentated feeds will be available daily depending on the competition schedule, plus a 24-hour broadcast of the Olympic News Channel. YouTube has already made a name for itself as a sports broadcaster to worldwide markets with events like Indian Premier League Cricket and now with the Olympics it’s taking another step forward. Check the press release after the break for the full list of countries as well as a video peek behind the scenes of producing such a large event.

Continue reading YouTube will live stream HD Olympics coverage to 64 territories in Asia, Africa

YouTube will live stream HD Olympics coverage to 64 territories in Asia, Africa originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 06 Jun 2012 19:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The 2011-2016 Outlook for Organic Light-Emitting Diode (OLED) Displays in Asia

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Author: Rod Sutherland

The 2011-2016 Outlook for Organic Light-Emitting Diode (OLED) Displays in Asia

This econometric study covers the outlook for organic light-emitting diode (oled) displays in Asia. For each year reported, estimates are given for the latent demand, or potential industry earnings (P.I.E.), for the country in question (in millions of U.S. dollars), the percent share the country is of the region and of the globe. These comparative benchmarks allow the reader to quickly gauge a country vis-a-vis others. Using econometric models which project fundamental economic dynamics within each country and across countries, latent demand estimates are created. This report does not discuss the specific players in the market serving the latent demand, nor specific details at the product level. The study also does not consider short-term cyclicalities that might affect realized sales. The study, therefore, is strategic in nature, taking an aggregate and long-run view, irrespective of the players or products involved.

This study does not report actual sales data (which are simply unavailable, in a comparable or consistent manner in virtually all of the countries in Asia). This study gives, however, my estimates for the latent demand, or the P.I.E. for organic light-emitting diode (oled) displays in Asia. It also shows how the P.I.E. is divided across the national markets of Asia. For each country, I also show my estimates of how the P.I.E. grows over time (positive or negative growth). In order to make these estimates, a multi-stage methodology was employed that is often taught in courses on international strategic planning at graduate schools of business.

List Price: $ 325.00

Price: $ 325.00

The 2011-2016 Outlook for Active-Matrix Organic Light-Emitting Diode (OLED) Displays in Asia

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Author: Stacey Cook

The 2011-2016 Outlook for Active-Matrix Organic Light-Emitting Diode (OLED) Displays in Asia

This econometric study covers the outlook for active-matrix organic light-emitting diode (oled) displays in Asia. For each year reported, estimates are given for the latent demand, or potential industry earnings (P.I.E.), for the country in question (in millions of U.S. dollars), the percent share the country is of the region and of the globe. These comparative benchmarks allow the reader to quickly gauge a country vis-a-vis others. Using econometric models which project fundamental economic dynamics within each country and across countries, latent demand estimates are created. This report does not discuss the specific players in the market serving the latent demand, nor specific details at the product level. The study also does not consider short-term cyclicalities that might affect realized sales. The study, therefore, is strategic in nature, taking an aggregate and long-run view, irrespective of the players or products involved.

This study does not report actual sales data (which are simply unavailable, in a comparable or consistent manner in virtually all of the countries in Asia). This study gives, however, my estimates for the latent demand, or the P.I.E. for active-matrix organic light-emitting diode (oled) displays in Asia. It also shows how the P.I.E. is divided across the national markets of Asia. For each country, I also show my estimates of how the P.I.E. grows over time (positive or negative growth). In order to make these estimates, a multi-stage methodology was employed that is often taught in courses on international strategic planning at graduate schools of business.

List Price: $ 325.00

Price: $ 325.00

Posts Tagged ‘Asia’

Nokia Puts WhatsApp Hard Key On $72 Asha 210 For Asia, Africa; Qwerty S40 Handset Gets Facebook Button In Europe, Latam

Both of our partners are hugely successful around the world.

Low end hardware + social software

Asha vs Android: Show me the money

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$25 Raspberry Pi Model A Now Shipping In Asia, After Landing In Europe Last Month – Heading Stateside Soon

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$25 Raspberry Pi Model A Now Shipping In Asia, After Landing In Europe Last Month – Heading Stateside Soon

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Sony unveils mid-range Xperia SP and L, due in Europe and Asia this spring

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StatCounter’s iOS Web Traffic Measurement Reveals Apple’s Asia Appeal May Be Waning

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3 From Asia – Android Dominates in China, Samsung Drops $1.8B & AR Maps in Japan

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HTC One X Android 4.1 rollout begins in Asia and Europe

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YouTube will live stream HD Olympics coverage to 64 territories in Asia, Africa

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The 2011-2016 Outlook for Organic Light-Emitting Diode (OLED) Displays in Asia

The 2011-2016 Outlook for Organic Light-Emitting Diode (OLED) Displays in Asia

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The 2011-2016 Outlook for Active-Matrix Organic Light-Emitting Diode (OLED) Displays in Asia

The 2011-2016 Outlook for Active-Matrix Organic Light-Emitting Diode (OLED) Displays in Asia

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