On Monday, Nokia released the Nokia 105, a $20 phone targeted at customers in developing countries. The low-end feature phone, which has more capabilities than a "dumb phone" but fewer than a smart phone, will likely help the company continue to thrive in the third world.
Smart phones may be trendy in developed nations, but 70 percent of global cell demand is still for low-end feature products, TechCruch reports. What's more, Africa is the world’s fastest growing mobile market, so for a mixed-price mobile manufacturer like Nokia, there’s a fortune to be made in the developing world. The demand for the new phone may even outstrip that for Nokia's previous low-end phone, the Nokia 1100, which was the world's best-selling phone. It will almost certainly see more demand than Nokia's signature high-end phone, the Lumia 920.
A phone for people to use in developing countries, where electricity is often sparse and infrastructure near-nonexistent, cannot simply be a clone of an American “dumb phone." See the gallery below for a look at the necessary special features and a window into the makeshift mobile market of the developing world.
