If you have gone through our Live coverage of today’s event, You will know that Asha 501 runs on a new OS platform known as “Nokia Asha Platform” which is based on “Smarterphone OS“, Nokia acquired long time back. Nokia has also mentioned that a 2G smartphone, Asha 501 is the first of many devices to come in future based on this platform.
As per the hands-on videos posted and demoed live, the new Swipe based UI is very intuitive and smooth and brings back comparison with “Meego” which it very well emulates. Check the first hands-on video posted by Nokia below.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=GsXUvR9k0FA]
Now, Nokia has also posted some cool “developer tools” and also mention that they expect to sell “100”million smartphones” based on this new “Nokia Asha Platform” in next two years. Ambitious, but quite achievable, as more and more feature phone users will migrate to cheap smartphones in future. Such well-designed phone with easy to use UI will get many takers!!
They also mention that many of the most popular applications are already available or in development for the Nokia Asha platform, including CNN, eBuddy, ESPN, Facebook, Foursquare, Line, LinkedIn, Nimbuzz, Pictelligent, The Weather Channel, Twitter, WeChat, WhatsApp, World of Red Bull and games from Electronic Arts, Gameloft, Indiagames, Namco-Bandai and Reliance Games. Many more will be available in the coming months.
For developers, have a look at the new tool for developers below and click source link for more,
New Nokia Asha SDK 1.0 and Nokia Asha web app tools.
The new Nokia Asha Software Development Kit 1.0 supports the development, testing, packaging and deployment of Java apps on the Nokia Asha platform. You will also get easy-to-use development tools and more ways to sell and promote apps, including the new Nokia In-App Payment tool.
New APIs in this SDK include:
- Mobile Internationalization (JSR238)
- Nokia Notifications
- Fileselect
- Image Scaling
- Network State
- Phone settings
- Contact
Learn more and download the Asha SDK 1.0.
