One of the more obvious opportunities in mobile is getting the smartphone past the affluent, early-adopters—and Nokia (NYSE: NOK), the largest handset maker in the world, has a plan for how to do just that.
Today, it unveiled the C-series smartphone product line, which Nokia describes in a blog post as a smartphone packed into a low-cost feature phone body. The first device, called the C5, comes loaded with Facebook built in, and has a somewhat small 2.2-inch display with a 3.2-megapixel camera. Nokia’s Ovi Maps with free navigation also comes pre-loaded. The C5 is expected to be available in the second quarter in Europe, Southeast Asia, China and the Middle east. The anticipated price, before taxes and subsidies, is $183 (€135).
The low-end smartphone market is considered a large opportunity because a mobile phone will like be the first way people, who don’t have access to computers, will first interact with the internet. Nokia has already had seen some success in the developing world, where users are quickly adopting its Ovi Mail service. Within a six month period, it said more than one million accounts had been activated.
As part of the C series announcement, Nokia explained its new naming conventions for its four smartphone product families. The C series are low-end smartphones, the E series phones are for business users, the X series is for youth and music, and N series represents the most advanced models.
While the E and N series have been around for awhile, the X series was introduced last year. Each handset will also be paired with a number, like the “C5.” The number signifies the range of functionality the phone offers from 1 to 9 (1 being the lowest and 9 being the highest). In a blog post, Nokia explained: “This new naming convention is designed to make things easier for users, so they can quickly and easily work out where a device sits within the series and beyond that have a clearer idea of what each series does. Nseries remains the flagship and most advanced range of products. Xseries comes next and focuses on social entertainment. Eseries remains focused on productivity and business whilst Cseries represents the core range of products.”