Nokia 105 Coming to India in April at Rs 1249 After Final Farewell of Black and White Display Phones

The Finnish manufacturer Nokia is striving too hard to get hold of its lost foothold in the mobile phone market. The company is launching different types of handsets including Windows Phone based Lumia lineup, smart features in Asha lineup and the entry-level handsets as well.

Earlier this year, Nokia unveiled two handsets including Nokia 105 and Nokia 310 alongside the Windows Phone 8 based Lumia 520 and Lumia 720 at the MWC 2013 tech show in Barcelona. Now, it seems like Nokia is planning to push the Nokia 105 handset into the market.

According to a report by TheHindu, the Finnish tech firm is planning to launch the basic color phone in India at a price of Rs 1,249 approximately in April 2013. The report quoted T.S. Sridhar Regional General Manager South of Nokia India stating that, "We are specifically looking at India, Africa and China where there is huge scope in the entry-level market. In India, we are going to introduce the phone in Andhra Pradesh this month followed by other markets. We are planning to phase out the 1280 phone of which we have sold 10 crore pieces."

Click here for more Nokia 105 mobile phone images...

Click here for more Nokia mobile phone images...

Furthermore, it is to be noted that recent CMR research has concluded that Nokia was the dominator in the feature phone market segment with a market share of 21.8% in 2012. However, Nokia could not fare well in the smartphone semgent that is led by Samsung with a share of 43.1%.

Being an entry level handset, Nokia 105 features a 1.45 inch LCD display, 8MB mass memory, a flashlight, FM Radio and an 800 mAh Li-ion battery with 35 days standby and 12.5 hours talk time. However, Nokia 105 lacks camera and connectivity features.

A separate BGR India report states that Nokia will bid adieu to the black and white display based mobile phones from its product category. The report quotes Viral Oza, Director of Marketing, Nokia India claiming that, "The launch of Nokia 105 marks an end to the era of black and white screen handsets from Nokia."