Nokia Asha is a discontinued series of
feature phones and low-end
smartphones
A smartphone is a mobile phone with advanced computing capabilities. It typically has a touchscreen interface, allowing users to access a wide range of applications and services, such as web browsing, email, and social media, as well as mult ...
produced and marketed by
Nokia
Nokia Corporation is a Finnish multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications industry, telecommunications, technology company, information technology, and consumer electronics corporation, originally established as a pulp mill in 1 ...
. It was marketed from late 2011 until 2014, by which time it was under
Microsoft Mobile
Microsoft Mobile Osakeyhtiö, Oy was a Finnish subsidiary of Microsoft engineering groups#Windows + Devices, Microsoft Devices involved in the development and manufacturing of mobile phones. Based in Keilaniemi, Espoo, it was established in 2014 ...
ownership. The range consisted of
QWERTY
QWERTY ( ) is a keyboard layout for Latin-script alphabets. The name comes from the order of the first six Computer keyboard keys#Types, keys on the top letter row of the keyboard: . The QWERTY design is based on a layout included in the Sh ...
keyboard, full
touchscreen
A touchscreen (or touch screen) is a type of electronic visual display, display that can detect touch input from a user. It consists of both an input device (a touch panel) and an output device (a visual display). The touch panel is typically l ...
, and hybrid 'touch and type' handsets. Most Asha phones run
Series 40
Nokia Series 40 Platform, often shortened as S40, is a software platform and application user interface (UI) software that was previously used on Nokia's broad range of mid-tier feature phones from 2002 to 2014, as well as on some of the Vertu l ...
while from 2013 full touch models run the derived
Nokia Asha platform.
History
The Nokia Asha range was announced at Nokia World 2011 on 26 October 2011 alongside the
Nokia Lumia
Nokia Lumia, later rebranded to Microsoft Lumia, is a discontinued line of mobile devices that was originally designed and marketed by Nokia and later by Microsoft Mobile. Introduced on October 26, 2011, the line was the result of a long-term p ...
. Asha was developed for emerging markets with the goal of connecting the "next billion" to the Internet, as cited by then Nokia CEO
Stephen Elop. The name "Asha" comes from the
Hindi
Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...
word meaning "hope".
According to ''
The Verge
''The Verge'' is an American Technology journalism, technology news website headquarters, headquartered in Lower Manhattan, New York City and operated by Vox Media. The website publishes news, feature stories, guidebooks, product reviews, cons ...
'' in September 2013, 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
Android on a low-end handset to maximize margins. The project resulted in the
Nokia X family 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.
On 3 September 2013,
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...
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
Windows Phone (WP) is a discontinued mobile operating system developed by Microsoft Mobile for smartphones as the replacement successor to Windows Mobile and Zune. Windows Phone featured a new user interface derived from the Metro design languag ...
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-based
Nokia X range entirely, in favor of solely producing Lumia Windows Phones and Nokia-branded "feature phone" products.
On 11 January 2018,
HMD Global
HMD Global (Human Mobile Devices) is a Finnish independent mobile phone manufacturer. The company is made up of the mobile phone business that the Nokia, Nokia Corporation sold to Microsoft in 2014, then bought back in 2016 by former executives ...
acquired the Asha
trademark
A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark) is a form of intellectual property that consists of a word, phrase, symbol, design, or a combination that identifies a Good (economics and accounting), product or Service (economics), service f ...
.
List of devices
Below are the mobile phones in the Asha range.
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
An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware and software resources, and provides common daemon (computing), services for computer programs.
Time-sharing operating systems scheduler (computing), schedule tasks for ...
with
Series 40
Nokia Series 40 Platform, often shortened as S40, is a software platform and application user interface (UI) software that was previously used on Nokia's broad range of mid-tier feature phones from 2002 to 2014, as well as on some of the Vertu l ...
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, which builds on S40 and
Smarterphone.
;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.
See also
*
Nokia N9
*
Nokia X
*
Microsoft Lumia
*
Symbian
Symbian is a discontinued mobile operating system (OS) and computing platform designed for smartphones. It was originally developed as a proprietary software OS for personal digital assistants in 1998 by the Symbian Ltd. consortium. Symbian OS ...
*
Nokia 1
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
Asha
''Asha'' () or ''arta'' (; ) is a Zoroastrian concept with a complex and highly nuanced range of meaning. It is commonly summarized in accord with its contextual implications of 'truth' and 'right' (or 'righteousness'), 'order' and 'right wor ...
Asha series (Nokia ASeries)
Mobile phones introduced in the 2010s