In addition to 3 entry level Nokia clamshells, Finnish phone maker now introduced 2 extremely cheap candybar shaped handsets for emerging markets - Nokia 1200 and Nokia 1208:

Nokia 1200 is a very basic phone with the feature set from last century:

Dual Band EGSM900/1800 and GSM850/1900 depending on the region
Series 30 interface
96 x 68 black and white display with green backlight
32 chord polyphonic ringtones
102 x 44.1 x 17.5 mm (LxWxH)
76.9g
up to 390 hrs standby and 7 hrs talk time

However Nokia 1200 is really cheap,  retailing for only 35 Euros. Nokia 1208 is a little better with the addition of 65K color VGA screen and will cost 40EUR.

What makes these phones interesting is their sharing features. Nokia noticed a popular phone sharing trend in emerging markets and designed the phones to accommodate it.

Both Nokia 1200 and Nokia 1208 have 5 separate phonebooks that can be managed and used by 5 different users (e.g. different members of a family). They also have the call-time tracking feature allows consumers and village phone entrepreneurs to pre-set a time or cost limit on individual calls, automatically ending the call after the limit has been reached.

Designed to be used in a rural and undeveloped areas Nokia 1200 and 1208 also have a dust resistant keyboard.

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Posted on 04 May 07 - Filed in 1200, 1208, Nokia, Wireless - - Written by Staska

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