Nokia has unveiled a $99 touchscreen smartphone in its Asha range running the Series 40 OS.

Series 40 is usually reserved for feature phones – making it one of the most widely used OSs in the world – while new Nokia smartphones are supposed to be running the Windows Phone OS after Nokia shelved its Symbian platform. But this latest iteration for the Asha 501 has some pretty smart features for a lower-end handset.

The swipeable touchscreen is designed to be faster and more responsive than previous versions, with a fastlane alternative homescreen which orders the apps and widgets based on recent usage. In-app purchases have now been made available to users and developers, along with the Nokia Advertising Exchange and carrier billing.

No 3G

Apps will have to be re-coded to work on the platform, but many of the cant live without apps are already available, including CNN, ESPN, Facebook, Foursquare, Line, LinkedIn, The Weather Channel, Twitter. A number of mobile games developers are also on board and it comes preloaded with Nokia’s cloud-based data compressing browser Xpress.

For its lack of certain features, it has wi-fi but no 3G, the phone has impressive standby time for both single SIM and dual SIM use – up to 48 days and 28 days respectively. Talk time is up to 17 hours – something many smartphone owners can only dream of. The phone is lighter than an iPhone 5 at 98 grams, but the 3.2 megapixel camera bears no comparison. And it comes in bright red, bright green, cyan, yellow, white and black.

The phone is expected to start shipping to more than 90 countries with around 60 carriers in June, with a particular focus on emerging markets.

Upstream comments

According to Upstream CEO Marco Veremis, the launch could be a major step for the OEM, as it tries to turn around its recent poor fortunes.

“Nokias Asha 501 has the potential to give the company the edge in emerging markets – where the device has already been touted for success,” says Veremis. “By offering this low-cost handset, thousands of emerging market consumers will be able to jump the gap between feature phones to smartphones – which are highly desirable because of the data, mobile applications and social connectivity they offer.

“Recent research we conducted found that almost a third of emerging market consumers want a phone priced in the $1-150 bracket. Couple this with the fact that Nokia is the second most desired brand in these lucrative markets, and the company has a strong chance of monetising this mass of new consumers.”