Jakarta - Nokia meresmikan anggota baru ponsel di keluarga Asha, yaitu Asha 501. Dengan sistem operasi baru di dalamnya, Nokia mengklaim Asha 501 adalah sebuah smartphone alias ponsel cerdas, bukan feature phone.

Ponsel dengan harga USD 99 atau di kisaran Rp 1 juta ini menjalankan platform software baru bernama Asha OS dari Smarterphone, perusahaan yang diakuisisi Nokia di 2012. Asha OS bisa menampilkan interface bernama Fastlane, yang menunjukkan daftar aplikasi sedang diakses, update jejaring sosial ataupun kontak.

"Dengan platform Asha yang baru, developer bisa membuat aplikasi berkualitas yang sebelumnya hanya ada di smartphone high end," kata Marco Agenti, head of Developer Experiences Nokia.

Beberapa aplikasi menarik sudah ada di OS tersebut. Termasuk CNN, eBuddy, ESPN, Facebook, Foursquare, LinkedIn dan Twitter. Ada juga game dari Electronics Arts, Gameloft dan Namco Bandai.

Asha 501 memiliki layar 3 inch kapasitif 240 x 320 pixel dengan 133ppi. Spesifikasi lainnya meliputi kamera 3,2 megapixel, Wi Fi, baterai yang diklaim dapat bertahan stand by sampai 48 hari, memori internal 128MB dan slot microSD. Namun konektivitasnya masih 2G.

Asha 501 yang punya berbagai pilihan warna menarik ini akan segera dirllis pada bulan Juni ke 90 negara. Demikian seperti dikutip detikINET dari PCMag,Jumat (10/5/2013).

Late last year, Nokia closed a deal to buy Norwegian firm Smarterphone, developer of the Smarterphone OS. That operating system has been around since 2008, powering feature phones such as the Kyocera C4700. The acquisition adds a new wrinkle to the company's strategy for lower-end handsets as it moves away from Symbian. We've already heard rumblings about the Linux-based "Meltemi" project as a successor, with Eldar Murtazin, for one, suggesting it will gradually replace the S40 operating system. He also believes the Smarterphone OS will replace the lower-end S30 software, maintaining Nokia's two-tiered feature phone approach.

The Nokia Asha software platform represents a major new opportunity for developers, as we expect to sell 100 million of the new-generation Asha smartphones over the next two years.


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.