Nokia has decided to flex its muscle in the low- to mid-range mobile phone market by coming out with three new affordable Smartphones. It is undeniable that this particular market segment has gained steam over the past few years and manufacturers have definitely taken notice. On their end, the Finnish mobile manufacturer intends to launch a trio of reasonably-priced Smartphones that should fit any type of budget.

On the list are the C6, E5, and the C3, all of which will retail for less than £200. Among the three, the C6 is definitely the cheapest with a price tag of only £80. The E5?s retail price is doubled at £160, while the C6 is the priciest among the three at roughly £190. All three handsets are expected to hit market stands throughout the second and third quarters of this year.

With these new line of Smartphones, the manufacturer aims to bring enhanced messaging and social networking features to the emerging markets. Market analyst Neil Mawston adds that the company’s “strategic focus is clearly on emerging markets now and taking higher feature devices to the masses and these three devices do that quite nicely.”

Still Going Strong

For most, this particular move by the world’s biggest mobile phone manufacturer is no surprise. However, some may have been misled by statements they made last December claiming that they would start focusing more on the Smartphone industry. To others, this meant that the company would be coming out with cutting edge devices that hoped to top the likes of the Apple iPhone 3GS or the HTC Legend.

While they’re definitely doing their part in this particular sector, the company has also wisely chosen not to neglect emerging markets. They have also decided to create Smartphones that pack in a whole lot of features and have priced them at a much lower cost specifically catering to the low- to mid-range market segment.

While Apple and Blackberry (and now emerging from the shadows is HTC) offer stiff competition, Nokia still remains to be the strongest player in the game – all things put into consideration. One testament to this fact is the growth the company experienced in the Smartphone arena wherein their market share grew by 5 percent (from 35% to 45%) during the fourth quarter of 2009.

A Look at the Handsets

As mentioned earlier, the C3 is the cheapest among the three models at only £ 80. Some of its notable features include a 2.4-inch screen, a functional 2-Megapixel camera, and access to the Ovi Chat and Ovi Mail which will let first-time users create their own chat and e-mail accounts straight from their handset even without the use of a desktop computer.

Wi-Fi is also on board the device which means that users won’t have any problems using the social networking apps on the mobile and access their Facebook and Twitter accounts with apparent ease.

What differentiates the C6 is its slide-out QWERTY keyboard which slots out from the side. If the keyboard is hidden from view, it actually looks a lot like the XpressMusic 5230 which proves that this particular handset also caters to a younger target market.

On the other hand, the E5 lives up to the E series reputation in that it is catered more for the corporate consumer. For proof of this fact, one would only need to look at its built-in apps such as IBM Lotus Notes Traveller and Mail for Exchange which will give users access to more than 90% of the whole world’s corporate electronic messages.

by Simon Drew

If you an African institution, Fasmicro is available to help you setup a world class microelectronics chip design lab. We will be using the Cadence CAD platform under the Europractice. The fee is $10,000 per school site. This excludes cost of your hardware. We will train your students and staff on the use of Cadence and all the processes involved in chip design from schematic entry, layout, extraction and tapeout, and finally the testing of the chip when fabricated.

EUROPRACTICE is a quality brand name for European service-type projects in the Microelectronics, Microsystems and Photonics fields. The EUROPRACTICE brand name covers a wide range of FP6 and FP7 projects.

The following is our timetable for major African markets:

Nigeria – anytime

Ghana – January 2012

Kenya – February 2012

South Africa – March 2012

We ask schools and companies that want to configure and setup Europractice services and master Cadence design to contact usa@fasmicro.com. Upon setup, your team will be required to spend time with us to get more exposure in CAD usage. Trainings will be done via Fasmicro U.S. services.

Cadence Design Systems, Inc is an electronic design automation (EDA) software and engineering services company. For years it had been the largest company in the EDA industry producing software for designing chips and printed circuit boards.

Fasmicro is a leading African microelectronics and embedded systems design company with headquarters in Nigeria and business operations in UK and USA.

hanks to its strong brand image as well as astute product and price positioning, Apple’s iPad has enjoyed overwhelming success. As a result, the global media tablet market has exceeded growth expectations since tablets were released to the market at the beginning of the second quarter of 2010, reports IHS iSuppli.

IHS predicts global media tablet shipments will reach 60 million units in 2011, up 245.9 percent from 17.4 million in 2010. Shipments are expected to increase to 275.3 million in 2015.

“Following the launch of Apple’s iPad and other high-profile devices, consumers have been bombarded with media tablet advertising and press coverage,” Wilkins noted. “And with the media tablet portrayed as providing the same capabilities as the notebook PC, consumers are considering media tablets to be an alternative to notebooks. This has caused notebook sales growth to slow down compared to past years.”

 

Nowhere has the impact of tablets on notebooks been more apparent than in the once-hot netbook segment. After enjoying double-digit growth from 2008 through 2010, netbook shipments are set to decline to 21.5 million units in 2011, down 33.2 percent from 32 million in 2010. Shipments are expected to continue to decrease during the coming years and will dwindle to 13.5 million units in 2015.

“A similar user experience to that of the netbook is offered by the media tablet, with both being highly portable platforms allowing convenient consumption of multimedia content, whether offline or online,” Wilkins noted. “Thus, the media tablet is attracting purchases from consumers who otherwise might buy notebooks.”

 
Ironically, the notebook market is expected to find some solace from the onslaught of media tablets in an unlikely place: the PC tablet. PC tablets are slate or convertible/hybrid tablets that incorporate a full PC operating system such as Windows 7 or Linux.

Unlike the great success of the media tablet, the PC tablet to date has only gained limited penetration into the mainstream business segment as an alternative to the notebook PC, along with small success in vertical markets including medical, logistics and education.