Nokia Asha budget smartphone outstrips top-end Lumia

Nokia’s entry-level Asha smartphones, aimed at emerging markets across Asia, Africa and Latin America, outsold the company’s top-end Lumia range by two-to-one in the last three months of 2012.

While Nokia Asha devices shifted a solid 9.3 million units, Nokia Lumia phones sold just 4.4 million. Asha smartphones, which have touchscreen smarts and use the company’s own ageing Symbian S40 software, are nowhere near as powerful as Lumia handsets which pack in the latest tech and run Microsoft’s Windows Phone 8 platform.

Nokia will be hoping that these strong sales will give it a good chance of competing with Google Android in the budget end of the smartphone sector. The Big G’s operating system is powering ahead in the fight to capture this lucrative market, with BlackBerry close behind. Apple is reportedly working on a cheaper iPhone to satisfy growing demand from consumers in these countries too.

However, tech analyst Tavis McCourt told All Things D that, “India, Eastern Europe, Africa and Latin America are examples of regions and countries where Nokia likely has a strong opportunity with Asha, but even in these markets Android phones are growing rapidly as well.”