Nokia CEO Stephen Elop is taking a lot of heat as his company prepares to unveil the Lumia 928 to the public. Investors are getting impatient, and they basically told him at their recent meeting to move away from Windows Phones and switch to Android. They want to know what Plan B is, if the Lumia 928 bombs. Could it be the Nokia Asha 501?
At the investor meeting, Elop said Nokia remains committed to Windows Phone, but the Finnish company still has one operating system alternative, and you can find it in the Nokia Asha 501.
The plan all along has been to make high-end Windows Phones like the Lumia 920 and Lumia 928, scale them down to more affordable levels for emerging markets, and reap the benefits. While we've seen this strategy begin to unfold, it's not happening fast enough, leaving the company with little choice but to keep the Asha series alive and compelling.
Revealed on Thursday, the Nokia Asha 501 will retail for only $99 in India and other emerging markets. The phone sports a 3-inch screen and a 3.2-megapixel camera, but only comes packing 4MB of memory (expandable to 32GB). For $99, though, it's likely to be a success.
"With the new Asha platform, developers will be incentivized to deliver those quality apps, previously found only on high-end smartphones, thanks to unprecedented volumes and reach opportunities through one distribution channel and a single platform," Nokia head of developer experiences Marco Argenti said in a statement to the Wall Street Journal.
Although the Asha 501 isn't anywhere close to being a high-end device like the Lumia 928 will be, should Microsoft be nervous about the fact that Nokia still doesn't think Windows Phone is good enough for its entire line-up of devices? According to The Verge, it's neither good nor bad at this point.
"Microsoft need not worry about Nokia's dedication to the Windows Phone cause," Vlad Savov wrote. "Devices like the imminent Lumia 928 will continue the battle to wrest control of the high end from Apple and Samsung, however Nokia's persistence with Asha can't be considered good news, either. It is evidence that Windows Phone isn't yet flexible enough to address all markets, leaving Nokia with no other option than to keep evolving the Asha platform."
Both Microsoft and Nokia have invested a lot of time and money into Windows Phone, and it would do neither company good to simply stop the project. If running with Microsoft doesn't seem to make sense, neither does entering a crowded Android market. Nokia's keeping its options open with Asha, but if it doesn't manage to get Windows Phones working soon, it's doubtful that Android is going to save it.
