The Nokia Asha series was a range of low-end

feature phones A feature phone (also spelled featurephone) is a type or class of mobile phone that retains the form factor of earlier generations of mobile telephones, typically with press-button based inputs and a small non-touch display. They tend to use an ...

and

smartphones A smartphone is a portable computer device that combines mobile telephone and computing functions into one unit. They are distinguished from feature phones by their stronger hardware capabilities and extensive mobile operating systems, which ...

produced and marketed by Nokia. The name "Asha" came from the Hindi word meaning "hope". On 3 September 2013, Microsoft announced its purchase of Nokia's mobile device business, with the deal closing on 25 April 2014. The company previously announced an intent to use Asha as an "on-ramp" to the Windows Phone platform, but in a company memo released in July 2014, it was announced that as part of cutbacks, Microsoft would end the Asha and

Android Android may refer to: Science and technology * Android (robot), a humanoid robot or synthetic organism designed to imitate a human * Android (operating system), Google's mobile operating system ** Bugdroid, a Google mascot sometimes referred to ...

-based

Nokia X The Nokia X was a mid-tier smartphone announced as part of the Nokia X family in February 2014, running on the Nokia X platform. The device shipped on the same day as the unveiling, with Nokia targeting the product for emerging markets, and was ...

range entirely, in favor of solely producing Lumia Windows Phones and Nokia-branded "feature phone" products. On 11 January 2018, HMD Global acquired the Asha brand name.

List of devices

Below are the mobile phones in the Asha range. None of the Asha models have

GPS The Global Positioning System (GPS), originally Navstar GPS, is a Radionavigation-satellite service, satellite-based radionavigation system owned by the United States government and operated by the United States Space Force. It is one of t ...

functionality. All Asha phones included an

FM radio FM broadcasting is a method of radio broadcasting using frequency modulation (FM). Invented in 1933 by American engineer Edwin Armstrong, wide-band FM is used worldwide to provide high fidelity sound over broadcast radio. FM broadcasting is cap ...

. The Asha 305 and Asha 311 models are known as the first generation of Asha Full Touch phones; the second generation is the Asha 50''x'' line. All devices up to the Asha 50''x'' series run the Nokia domestic operating system with Series 40 UI platform, also known as S40. The Asha 501 (released in May 2013), Asha 500, Asha 502, Asha 503 and Asha 230 (announced on 14 February 2014) are powered by the

Nokia Asha platform The Nokia Asha platform is a mobile operating system (OS) and computing platform designed for low-end borderline smartphones, based on software from Smarterphone which was acquired by Nokia. The platform inherits UI similarities mostly from MeeG ...

, which builds on S40 and

Smarterphone Smarterphone was a Norwegian company making software for mobile phones, founded in 1993 as Kvaleberg AS before being renamed in December 2010. In June 2007, venture capital investor Ferd invested €2 million in the company. By January 2010, ...

. ;Feature phones without the Asha name powered by S40 The Nokia 206, 207, 208, and 301 were not part of the Asha series as they do not carry the "Asha" branding, despite mistakenly being marketed as such by some carriers and retailers.

Asha on Linux project

According to '' The Verge'', Nokia had a project referred to as ''Asha on Linux'' and also as "MView"—a reference to Mountain View. The project used a fork of

on a low-end handset to maximize margins. The project resulted in the

Nokia X family The Nokia X family was a range of budget smartphones that was produced and marketed by Microsoft Mobile, originally introduced in February 2014 by Nokia. The smartphones run on the Nokia X platform, a Linux-based operating system which was a fork ...

of devices, unveiled at MWC 2014. It was one of two known Android projects at the company, the other was running the OS on high-end Lumia hardware.

References

External links

{{Nokia devices, 1000 series=yes, 2000 series=yes, 3000 series=yes, 5000 series=yes, 6000 series=yes, 7000 series=yes, 8000 series=yes, 9000 series=yes, 3-digit series=yes, asha=yes, cseries=yes, eseries=yes, nseries=yes, xseries=yes, 3-digit symbian=yes, lumia=yes, internet=yes, n-gage=yes, x family=yes, android=yes, originals=yes, c series=yes, g series=yes, x series=yes, miscellaneous=yes, below=yes Smartphones Nokia phones by series Asha series (Nokia ASeries) Mobile phones introduced in the 2010s

List of devices

Asha on Linux project

See also

References

External links