Nokia Asha Platform Unlocks Sub-100 USD Smartphone Opportunity for Developers
(Thomson Reuters ONE) -
New Asha platform delivers developers a consistent quality application
experience in the world's fastest growing smartphone category
New Delhi, India and Espoo, Finland - Nokia today announced a global initiative
to unlock the sub-100 USD smartphone market for developers with the release of
its Nokia Asha platform. Nokia also announced the Nokia Asha 501, the first
smartphone built for the new platform.
Developers who write applications for the Nokia Asha 501 will reach all
smartphones based on the new Asha platform without having to re-write code.
Nokia expects to sell 100 million of the new generation Asha smartphones over
the coming years, beginning with the Nokia Asha 501.
"We've seen a tremendous increase in consumer demand for apps for our Asha
smartphones, as witnessed by the growth of downloads in Nokia Store," said Marco
Argenti, head of Developer Experiences at Nokia. "Consumers expect quality apps
at every price point. 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."
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,
World of Red Bull and games from Electronic Arts, Gameloft, Indiagames, Namco-
Bandai and Reliance Games. WhatsApp and other key partners continue to explore
new Asha.
Developers 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 Nokia Asha SDK 1.0 and Nokia Asha web app tools
The new Nokia Asha Software Development Kit 1.0 is a suite of tools that support
the development, testing, packaging and deployment of Java apps on the Nokia
Asha platform.
The new Nokia Asha web app tools include a Web Development Environment (WDE), an
integrated development environment (IDE) that developers can use to create and
edit their Nokia Asha web apps; Web Inspector to help developers to debug and
inspect elements in their web apps; and a new Web Designer Tool for creating
great user experience for their web apps.
Nokia In-App Payment
Nokia also announced the new Nokia In-App Payment tool, designed to make it
easier for developers to sell content from within their apps. It provides a
simple and secure purchase experience for consumers and transparent payments for
developers. Nokia In-App Payment will also be available for existing Asha and
Series 40 phones, such as the Nokia 301. Nokia will release a public beta of
Nokia In-App Payment in the coming weeks. Developers can sign-up for the beta at
www.developer.nokia.com/inapppayment.
Developers voice support for new Nokia Asha platform
Dennis Crowley, CEO and co-founder of Foursquare: "Nokia continues to be a
valued partner for Foursquare. The new Foursquare app on Asha delivers a
fantastic search and discovery experience to help people make the most of where
they are. As we head into the next wave of new Asha smartphones, we look forward
to making Foursquare available for millions of Asha customers around the world."
Michael Fisher, Director of Mobile Business Development, Twitter: "Twitter's
integration into the new Asha platform, along with preloaded Twitter application
that ships on Nokia devices, offers people a richer Twitter experience. Whether
you want to share a photo or news article, connect with people or find out
what's happening around the world, it's now easier than ever to use Twitter on
this family of devices."
Sebastien Thevenet, General Manager SEA-Pacific, Gameloft: "As Nokia's long term
partner, with to date 200 million downloads recorded on Nokia Store, Gameloft is
thrilled to offer four preloaded high quality games on the Nokia Asha 501 at
launch (Assassin's Creed 3, Bubble Bash 3, Real Football 2013, Little Big City)
and overall more than 30 games to download on Nokia Store down the track. Those
innovative titles are Try and Buy and Free to Play games making the most of Asha
Full Touch capabilities and unique user interface, truly bringing a smartphone
gaming experience at your fingertips."
Akira Morikawa, CEO of Line Corporation: "Line's partnership with Nokia is very
important and it will continue on new Asha. Delivering Line on new Asha
represents our commitment of ensuring that people around the world will
experience the joy of communication through Line on Asha smartphones."
Manish Agarwal, CEO, Reliance Games: "Reliance Games and Nokia have together
demonstrated the combined power of localized content and a distribution platform
in India. Our partnership with Nokia is a very cherished partnership for us to
demonstrate the power of GoLocal. Reliance Games is committed to develop games
on localized themes on the new Asha platform and entertain millions of people
around the world by working closely with local Nokia teams in India, Asia
Pacific, Latin America and other growth markets."
Keshav Bajaj, VP Business Development, Nimbuzz: "Most of the 150 million and
counting Nimbuzz users are from markets where Nokia Asha continues to gain
momentum, including India, South East Asia, Middle East and Africa. We are very
excited to have an application exclusively built for the new Asha platform to
ensure the best user experience. This is yet another initiative from Nimbuzz for
one of its most exclusive partners, Nokia."
Alex Adjadj, Director of Strategic Development, Mobile Sales & Marketing, Namco-
Bandai: "NAMCO BANDAI has been developing mobile games for over 10 years but
there are still regions of the world where users haven't seen or played PAC-MAN.
Our 22 titles available in 13 languages for the Nokia Asha 501 is a testament to
our commitment to Nokia to bring a great experience to mobile users of all
demographics and budgets."
Ramesh Kumar, Head of ESPNcricinfo and ESPN Digital Media India: "Given the
popularity of Asha devices, the ESPNcricinfo app on the Asha 2013 platform is a
dynamic way to reach growing numbers of mobile users in emerging markets. It is
a rich platform where the ESPNcricinfo app can provide comprehensive cricket
coverage tailored to suit on-the-go consumption of today's passionate fans,
including its famed match coverage, the latest news stories, insightful
editorial pieces covering International & domestic cricket - all tailor-made for
mobile consumption."
FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
It should be noted that Nokia and its business are exposed to various risks and
uncertainties and certain statements herein that are not historical facts are
forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, those regarding: A)
the expected plans and benefits of our partnership with Microsoft to bring
together complementary assets and expertise to form a global mobile ecosystem
for smartphones; B) the timing and expected benefits of our strategies,
including expected operational and financial benefits and targets as well as
changes in leadership and operational structure; C) the timing of the deliveries
of our products and services; D) our ability to innovate, develop, execute and
commercialize new technologies, products and services; E) expectations regarding
market developments and structural changes; F) expectations and targets
regarding our industry volumes, market share, prices, net sales and margins of
our products and services; G) expectations and targets regarding our operational
priorities and results of operations; H) expectations and targets regarding
collaboration and partnering arrangements; I) the outcome of pending and
threatened litigation, regulatory proceedings or investigations by authorities;
J) expectations regarding the successful completion of restructurings,
investments, acquisitions and divestments on a timely basis and our ability to
achieve the financial and operational targets set in connection with any such
restructurings, investments, acquisitions and divestments; and K) statements
preceded by "believe," "expect," "anticipate," "foresee," "target," "estimate,"
"designed," "aim", "plans," "intends," "will" or similar expressions. These
statements are based on management's best assumptions and beliefs in light of
the information currently available to it. Because they involve risks and
uncertainties, actual results may differ materially from the results that we
currently expect. Factors, including risks and uncertainties that could cause
these differences include, but are not limited to: 1) our ability to make the
Windows Phone ecosystem a competitive and profitable global ecosystem that
achieves sufficient scale, value and attractiveness to relevant market
participants, making Nokia products with Windows Phone a competitive choice for
consumers; 2) our success in the smartphone market, including our ability to
introduce and bring to market quantities of attractive, competitively priced
Nokia products with Windows Phone that are positively differentiated from our
competitors' products, both outside and within the Windows Phone ecosystem; 3)
our ability to produce attractive and competitive devices in our Mobile Phones
business unit, including feature phones and devices with features such as full
touch that can be categorized as smartphones, in a timely and cost efficient
manner with differentiated hardware, software, localized services and
applications; 4) the success of our HERE strategy, including our ability to
establish a successful location-based platform and extend our location-based
services across devices and operating systems; 5) our ability to provide support
for our Devices & Services business and maintain current and create new sources
of revenue from our location-based service and commerce assets; 6) our ability
to protect numerous patented standardized or proprietary technologies from
third-party infringement or actions to invalidate the intellectual property
rights of these technologies; 7) our ability to maintain the existing sources of
intellectual property related revenue and establish new such sources; 8) the
intensity of competition in the various markets where we do business and our
ability to maintain or improve our market position or respond successfully to
changes in the competitive environment; 9) our ability to keep momentum and
increase our speed of innovation, product development and execution in order to
bring new innovative and competitive mobile products and location-based or other
services to the market in a timely manner; 10) the success of our partnership
with Microsoft in connection with the Windows Phone ecosystem; 11) our ability
to effectively and smoothly implement the planned changes in our operational
structure and achieve targeted efficiencies and reductions in operating
expenses; 12) our ability to retain, motivate, develop and recruit appropriately
skilled employees; 13) our dependence on the development of the mobile and
communications industry, including location-based and other services industries,
in numerous diverse markets, as well as on general economic conditions globally
and regionally; 14) our ability to maintain and leverage our traditional
strengths in the mobile products market, especially if we are unable retain the
loyalty of our mobile operator and distributor customers and consumers as a
result of the implementation of our strategies or other factors; 15) the
performance of the parties we partner and collaborate with, including Microsoft
and our ability to achieve successful collaboration or partnering arrangements;
16) our ability to deliver our mobile products profitably, in line with quality
requirements and on time, especially if the limited number of suppliers we
depend on, many of which are geographically concentrated with a majority based
in Asia, fail to deliver sufficient quantities of fully functional products,
components, sub-assemblies, software and services on favorable terms and in
compliance with our supplier requirements; 17) our ability to manage efficiently
our manufacturing and logistics, as well as to ensure the quality, safety,
security and timely delivery of our products and services; 18) any actual or
even alleged defects or other quality, safety and security issues in our
products; 19) any inefficiency, malfunction or disruption of a system or network
that our operations rely on; 20) the impact of cybersecurity breach or other
factors leading to an actual or alleged loss, improper disclosure or leakage of
any personal or consumer data collected by us or our partners or subcontractors,
made available to us or stored in or through our products; 21) our ability to
successfully manage the pricing of our products and costs related to our
products and our operations; 22) the potential complex tax issues and
obligations we may face, including the obligation to pay additional taxes in
various jurisdictions and our actual or anticipated performance, among other
factors, could result in allowances related to deferred tax assets; 23) exchange
rate fluctuations, particularly between the euro, which is our reporting
currency, and the US dollar, the Japanese yen and the Chinese yuan, as well as
certain other currencies; 24) our ability to protect the technologies, which we
or others develop or which we license, from claims that we have infringed third
parties' intellectual property rights, as well as our unrestricted use on
commercially acceptable terms of certain technologies in our product and
services; 25) the impact of economic, regulatory, political or other development
on our sales, manufacturing facilities and assets located in emerging market
countries as well as the impact of regulations against imports to those
countries; 26) the impact of changes in and enforcement of government policies,
technical standards, trade policies, laws or regulations in countries where our
assets are located and where we do business; 27) investigations or claims by
contracting parties in relation to exits from countries, areas or contractual
arrangements; 28) unfavorable outcome of litigation, regulatory proceedings or
investigations by authorities; 29) allegations of possible health risks from
electromagnetic fields generated by base stations and mobile devices, and the
lawsuits and publicity related to them, regardless of merit; 30) Nokia Siemens
Networks' success in the mobile broadband infrastructure and related services
market and its ability to effectively, profitably and timely adapt business and
operations to the diverse needs of its customers; 31) Nokia Siemens Networks'
ability to maintain and improve its market position and respond successfully to
changes and competition in the mobile broadband infrastructure and related
services market; 32) Nokia Siemens Networks' success in implementing its
restructuring plan and reducing its operating expenses and other costs; 33)
Nokia Siemens Networks' ability to invest in and timely introduce new
competitive products, services, upgrades and technologies; 34) Nokia Siemens
Networks' dependence on limited number of customers and large, multi-year
contracts; 35) Nokia Siemens Networks' liquidity and its ability to meet its
working capital requirements, including access to available credit under its
financing arrangements and other credit lines as well as cash at hand; 36) the
management of Nokia Siemens Networks' customer financing exposure; 37) whether
ongoing or any additional governmental investigations of alleged violations of
law by some former employees of Siemens may involve and affect the carrier-
related assets and employees transferred by Siemens to Nokia Siemens Networks;
38) any impairment of Nokia Siemens Networks customer relationships resulting
from ongoing or any additional governmental investigations involving the Siemens
carrier-related operations transferred to Nokia Siemens Networks, as well as the
risk factors specified on pages 12-47 of Nokia's annual report on Form 20-F for
the year ended December 31, 2012 under Item 3D. "Risk Factors." Other unknown or
unpredictable factors or underlying assumptions subsequently proving to be
incorrect could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the
forward-looking statements. Nokia does not undertake any obligation to publicly
update or revise forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new
information, future events or otherwise, except to the extent legally required.
About Nokia
Nokia is a global leader in mobile communications whose products have become an
integral part of the lives of people around the world. Every day, more than 1.3
billion people use their Nokia to capture and share experiences, access
information, find their way or simply to speak to one another. Nokia's
technological and design innovations have made its brand one of the most
recognized in the world. For more information, visit http://www.nokia.com/about-
nokia.
Media Enquiries:
Nokia
Communications
Tel. +358 7180 34900
Email: press.services(at)nokia.com
www.nokia.com
This announcement is distributed by Thomson Reuters on behalf of
Thomson Reuters clients. The owner of this announcement warrants that:
(i) the releases contained herein are protected by copyright and
other applicable laws; and
(ii) they are solely responsible for the content, accuracy and
originality of the information contained therein.
Source: NOKIA via Thomson Reuters ONE
[HUG#1700610]
Unternehmensinformation / Kurzprofil:
Datum: 09.05.2013 - 09:07 Uhr
Sprache: Deutsch
News-ID 258056
Anzahl Zeichen: 19376
contact information:
Town:
Espoo
Kategorie:
Business News
Diese Pressemitteilung wurde bisher 173 mal aufgerufen.
Die Pressemitteilung mit dem Titel:
"Nokia Asha Platform Unlocks Sub-100 USD Smartphone Opportunity for Developers"
steht unter der journalistisch-redaktionellen Verantwortung von
NOKIA (Nachricht senden)
Beachten Sie bitte die weiteren Informationen zum Haftungsauschluß (gemäß TMG - TeleMedianGesetz) und dem Datenschutz (gemäß der DSGVO).
