Nokia Asha sells twice as much as Lumia

Nokia has anounced its Q4 financials and has told investors to prepare for better results than were previously expected. According to AllThingsD, this may mostly be because of the high amounts of popularity that the company's Asha line-up has been seeing.

While the Lumia series has been selling well, it would be well worth noting that Asha smartphones have hit 9.3 million units in the fourth quarter. This is more than double the number of units that the company has shipped of the Lumia series. This could be attributed to the popularity of low-end smartphones, as opposed to the considerably pricer higher end Lumia phones.

“Some countries, like China, appear to be “game, set, match” for Android, while others like Indonesia are heavily BlackBerry,” Raymond James analyst Tavis McCourt told AllThingsD. “Asha is interesting for Nokia because in many of these markets Nokia’s brand is very strong and Symbian devices used to sell very well. India, Eastern Europe, Africa and Latin America are examples of 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.”

Nokia may be relying on the Asha series to sustain itself while it still tries to push its higher end Lumia out. Even now, the popularity of the Asha series can be seen by simply going into a Mumbai train and scanning the devices in the commuter's hands.

“The growth in Asha from Q3 to Q4 was impressive, but Nokia has had a history of heavy shipment volume in emerging markets in fourth quarters followed by weak first quarters. So it’s probably a bit early to declare victory for Nokia against low end Android competitors in emerging markets,” said McCourt.

The company had recently launched the Asha 205 in India. It features a QWERTY keyboard and introduces a new dedicated Facebook button, with which Nokia is targeting those who want quick access to their Facebook profile. Featuring support for popular email services like Gmail, and with Twitter and eBuddy apps pre-installed, the phone costs Rs 3,499.

The device also takes advantage of the Nokia Xpress Internet platform, which uses Nokia’s cloud technology to reduce data consumption by up to 85 percent, helping consumers enjoy more affordable Internet access. It also features Nokia Nearby, a web app that helps consumers discover more than 7 million points of interest such as restaurants, shopping and ATM machines close to their location.