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Microsoft Unveils Nokia 215, a $29 Phone With Internet Access

Posted by samzenpus on from the lowering-the-price dept.

An anonymous reader sends word of the Nokia 215, Microsoft's $29 internet-ready phone. "Smartphones may be more affordable than ever, but, for quite a few people, they are still too expensive. And they offer short battery life, pretty much across the board. It is not a winning combination, especially for those living in developing markets, looking to be connected to the Internet while on the go. Enter Nokia 215, a dirt-cheap Internet-ready phone, which Microsoft announced earlier today. It packs some of the most-important features people want in a smartphone, but without any of the major drawbacks. The software giant calls it its "most affordable Internet-ready entry-level phone yet", costing just $29."

8 of 150 comments (clear)

  1. It may not be for me... by Kokuyo · · Score: 4, Interesting

    But I find this pretty awesome.

    1. Re:It may not be for me... by Gadget_Guy · · Score: 3, Interesting

      It's pretty much the same setup as the XBox, I suspect - sell the hardware at a loss, and hope to make it up in apps and API subscription fees.

      If this was all about making money from downloaded apps then they would have included more than 8MB of memory on the thing. These are just basic feature phones that do a few simple things for a cheap price.

      There are a lot of people out there who don't want to carry a huge smart phone; they just want something small that can make calls and which doesn't run out of batteries at the end of each day. You tend not to hear about these people, because by definition they are not big on social media.

      They aren't "saving up for an Android phone", because you can pick up one of those for just $40 more. They are probably the ones who still buy diaries made from dead trees. It is a niche market that will never go away no matter how cheap smart phone become.

  2. Got Root? by McGruber · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Here is what else you should know about Nokia 215. It has a 2.4-inch display, 0.3 MP camera on the back (which can shoot video), 8 MB of RAM (that is not a typo)

    Well that's one way to keep Android from being ported to it...

  3. Sweet by drinkypoo · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I don't want one any more, but was a time when this would have been right up my alley. I use my phone for a lot of browsing these days, so it's right out. But a lot of people have been asking for a phone exactly like this; it has the uSD slot so it can be used as an MP3 player, which is where most cheap phones fail.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  4. Kin 2.0? by MachineShedFred · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Looks like their last cheap phone for kids, with a layout change.

    --
    Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
  5. I don't get "smartphones are too expensive" by xxxJonBoyxxx · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I don't get "smartphones are too expensive." Fifteen years ago people paid $1,000 or more out of pocket just to connect a desktop to the Internet. Today, you can buy a new Android smartphone for $50-60 or 8" Android tablet for the same money. Even if you pay the Apple tax, you're still paying just half what you had to ten years ago to get an ultra-portable, Internet-enabled device.

    Furthermore, phone plans with plenty of (non-video, non-streaming) Internet access can be found for something like $25/month from places like Virgin Mobile. (I just moved my wife and kids to one of their shared plans...still only pay about $40 a month for all of them.) If you want more, you still can probably get all the bandwidth you need for less than $100/month. (Again, cheap for those of us who remember agonizing over corporate T1 lines.)

    Unless the Nokia 215 is aiming to be the next Obamaphone (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpAOwJvTOio)...what exactly is the point of this?

    1. Re:I don't get "smartphones are too expensive" by Rik+Sweeney · · Score: 4, Interesting

      what exactly is the point of this?

      In some countries, people only earn a couple of dollars a day. They still want access to the internet, but paying hundreds of dollars (hell, even a hundred dollars) to do it on their phone is madness. A $29 phone is precisely what they want (and even at this price, I imagine a few people might have to give this investment some serious thought first).

      Both Microsoft and Google (read: Android phone manufacturers) have moved to the emerging markets as they can see its potential. I have no idea why Apple aren't tapping into this, maybe they know their customers will blindly buy their next phone regardless of its features or price.

      --
      Summation 2
  6. Expectations by sjbe · · Score: 3, Interesting

    It's a $30 phone without any subsidies and you're bitching that it lacks fancy features? You do realize that there are lots of people who don't actually need maps/navigation on their phone right? Hell I have a current generation iPhone and I very rarely use it for navigation since my car has a GPS built in.

    There is a very sizeable market for basic phones with basic features at a low price. Nokia has been serving this market successfully for many years now.