“Nokia has given more than 4000 ad spots to the Lumia 800 on TV” – complained the promoter of a rival brand. “If only our products were equally promoted ….”While the jury is out, I am certain that the Lumia 800 is breaking no sales records and is far from turning the tide for Nokia. Microsoft getting Nokia to adopt WP was a mutually beneficial move, one which would see Windows phone finally get some traction with a dedicated hardware manufacturer who has equal skin in the game. Nokia so far has not disappointed by launching two handsets in a span of just six months.

The Lumia 800 is best priced at Rs 28,300 (in Mumbai) and that’s competing with the likes of HTC Sensation, Samsung Galaxy SII and a plethora of lower priced Android phones. At a time when dollar rates are surging, it would be unfair to expect price cuts on a top end smartphone from Nokia and I won’t even ask for that (hint: it may still happen). Hence the Lumia 710 has been my bet since long because of the price advantage it has over the rest which also opens up a bigger segment for the device. The QUESTION: Would Nokia promote its dark horse?

I got a glimpse of the 710 during the Lumia 800 launch last year and that’s the last I saw of the 710. And so far there have been no seed units for media, no aggressive in store promotions, no painted Jets, no sky parties, no flash mobs, no TV slots. In my opinion, the 710 actually has the potential to sell way more than the Lumia 800, now if only Nokia pushed this device a little more.A sub Rs. 20,000 smartphone with a beautiful and refreshing OS like WP Mango is indeed a lucrative prospect. And the 710 has a Nokia brand name to back it up. That’s not all, the 710 has the same processing power as the 800 and developers can deliver equally well.

Another way to look at it is Microsoft’s interest. At this point Microsoft cares less about beating the top end iPhone or Android on the market. The biggest criticism of Windows Phone is lack of great apps and MS needs millions of users to entice developers. What Nokia is doing, is at best creating a feel good factor (Yes, the Amazing every day and all). But for the Windows platform & Nokia to be Amazing a year later the requirement is simple: lots of users and a whole lot of quality app which comes from developers making money from the platform.

Last year, Nokia launched the Asha series of entry-level phones at the Nokia World 2011. The Nokia Asha phones are currently available in more than 100 markets globally. Today, the company unveiled the new Nokia Asha 202 and Nokia Asha 203 Touch and Type phones at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2012 in Barcelona. The specs of both the handsets are almost similar. However, the only difference is the dual-SIM feature packed in the Nokia Asha 202. These handsets allows you to access your Facebook and Twitter networks from the preloaded social application.

“Since outlining a new strategy a year ago, we’ve taken significant actions to deliver against it,” said Mary T. McDowell, Nokia’s executive vice president for Mobile Phones. “We’ve been connecting the next billion people to the mobile world and its benefits through contemporary feature phones and internet services. Today, we are taking another step in that direction, with a compelling combination of smarter mobile devices packed with innovative services.”

Nokia Asha 203

Nokia Asha 203 features a 2.4 inch QVGA, resistive touchscreen display, Symbian S40 OS, 2 megapixel camera, 3.5 mm headset jack, music player, Nokia Life, Nokia Maps, inbuilt speaker, social networking apps, Bluetooth 2.1 with EDR, 10 MB internal memory, microSD card slot, 32 GB expandable memory, MicroUSB, dedicated SIM manager, up to 27 days of stand-by time, up to 5 hours of talk-time, and a 1020 mAh battery. This handset measures 114.8 mm x 49.8 mm x 13.85 mm and weighs just 90g. The Nokia Asha 203 will be available in 3 colors – Silver White, Dark Red, and Dark Grey.