HMD Global, a company formed by ex-Nokia employees, announced the launch of the new Nokia 3310 handset in India.
“The Nokia 3310 will be available across top mobile stores in India starting May 18, 2017,” it said.
The phone will retail at a recommended best buy price of Rs 3,310, the company added.
The Nokia 3310 was the phone that made Nokia a household name across the world, and particularly in India.
The phone, which used to found in the hands of every other mobile phone user in India at the turn of the millennium, was noted for its robustness and ‘cool’ and understated design.
The phone also had ‘snake’, a popular game at the time.
“Talk all day on a single charge, send texts, take pictures and enjoy a pocket jukebox with a built-in FM Radio and MP3 player. Our reinvention of this classic design is sure to make you smile. It’s got everything you remember, but with a modern twist,” said Ajey Mehta, VP-India, HMD.
HMD was formed in May 2016 when a company formed by ex-Nokia staff bought Microsoft Mobile’s feature phone business. The company also bought the rights to use the ‘Nokia’ brand until the year 2024 from Nokia — which is primarily focused on network components.
Nokia, which at one time used to account for close to half of all mobile phones sold in the world, came up on hard times with the advent of touch-screen mobile phones.
The company’s former CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo bet big on non-touch form factors, such as sliders and candybars — a decision that was to cost the company dearly as it lost out to upstarts like Samsung and LG.
HMD is headed by CEO Arto Nummela, who was at Nokia for 17 years, and is based in Espoo in Finland, a stone’s throw away from Nokia’s own office in the city.
The company uses both Android and ‘Series 30+’ software for its phones. Manufacturing is carried out by Foxconn.
NEW NOKIA 3110
The 3310 will support dual-band GSM and will support dual-SIM functionality.
It is powered by the Series 30 operating system and has a 2.4 inch curved window colour display with a resolution of 240*320 pixels.
The phone comes with Bluetooth, a 3.5 mm jack and a micro-USB port.
The device, which comes with an LED torchlight and support for MicroSD cards of up to 32 GB, also has a 2 megapixel camera.