Nokia has unveiled a simple £13 mobile phone that can last for 35 days on a single charge. It is aimed at emerging markets where electricity is rare, but could also be sold as a back-up phone.
The Nokia 105, which is set to go on sale within weeks, has a colour screen, built-in torch and an FM radio.
It’s now the cheapest phone in the Finnish firm’s range, and was hailed as ‘the ultimate festival phone’ at its launch.
A spokesman for Nokia said: ‘The phone was created to offer the essentials – phone calls and SMS – but also some desirable extras.
Nokia’s experience in optimizing phone quality, combined with its global footprint and economies of scale, is a major contributor to being able to work to such a low price.’
The firm also used the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona to launch three other low-cost devices, including a £120 smartphone, the Lumia 520.
Experts predict this will be a big year for cheap smartphones, as firms try to attract customers in the developing world.
The smartphone, which operates with Windows 8, could be perfect for colder countries with its super-sensitive touch-screen technology, meaning it can be used while wearing gloves, the firm said.
But with experts predicting a big year for cheap smartphones as developers try to make inroads into the developing world, the Lumia 520 could be seen in India or Africa more than Scandinavia.
The phone also comes with a 5-megapixel camera and access to the music streaming service Nokia Music.
Those two phones were launched alongside the Lumia 720, which Nokia is pitching at ‘socialites’, and the £56 ‘candybar’-style 301.
Nokia CEO Stephen Elop told the press : ‘Today we’re introducing the world’s most innovative portfolio of products.
‘For Nokia the building blocks are in place and now we have to make sure that all of this capability, all of this beauty in design, everything that we have done in terms of great product making is put into the hands of consumers and that’s what we’re focused on today.’
Samsung will unveil the next generation of its Galaxy smartphone in New York City next month. It comes after Apple overtook Samsung as the top mobile phone seller in the US in the fourth quarter of 2012.
