Microsoft to sell feature phone with Opera Mini browser included

[sgunhouse]

sgunhouse Moderator Volunteer last edited by

Anyone seen winged pigs recently? Microsoft today announced a new feature phone (as in, not a smartphone) that they say will sell for the equivalent of $37 in places like India. The phone is based on the Nokia Series 30 OS, but does include a web browser ... namely, Opera Mini.

As seen on Slashdot:

https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/16/09/20/2018245/microsoft-unveils-37-nokia-216-feature-phone

[blackbird71]

blackbird71 last edited by

Things have come a long way since the days of Opera 7 when Microsoft MSN began deliberately serving Opera (and only Opera) an outdated style sheet that over-shifted MSN page displays to make the browser rendering appear to be shabby, and Opera retaliated with a special Opera version that totally scrambled MSN's (and only MSN's) web pages - a chapter in the browser wars that's largely forgotten today.

[leocg]

leocg Moderator Volunteer last edited by

Opera Bork.

[Deleted User]

Deleted User last edited by

@leocg: well, i for one would love to see a modernized symbian/s40 phone, 3.5-4" touchscreen, gps, wifi hotspot/tethering, huge battery, 8mp camera w led flash etc etc.

sadly nokia/micro$oft killed off the symbian ecosystem to force buyers into windows, maybe the new nokia dares a fresh start away from android and windows.

[leocg]

leocg Moderator Volunteer last edited by

sadly nokia/micro$oft killed off the symbian ecosystem to force buyers into windows

Well, Symbian was already dead when MS bought the phone division of Nokia. In fact, it was Symbian obsolescence that led to Nokia being partially sold.

I had a few Nokia phones, each with a different OS. I used to like Nokia phones and Symbian but they started to become obsolete as Nokia seemed to could not see the progress coming.

[Deleted User]

Deleted User last edited by

yeah, nokia had become complacent, resting for too long on the laurels after their success before iphone.
so they were loosing out vs google and apple even before microsoft managed to place their man stephen elop as nokia ceo.

but ultimately microsoft payed a high price, effectively having to shut down nokia's phone division only a few years after an expensive purchase.

nokia itself retained the right to reenter the phone market in 2017, and now could start afresh with a completely new portfolio.

plenty potential customers in india, russia, se asia, africa, latin america and maybe even china for a no-nonsense communication device without 1st world frivolities like gameplay o hd video playback.

with windows mobile and blackberry fading away and ubuntu etc still not ready, breaking the duopoly of android and ios can only be a good thing. even more so when some of nokia's money goes to opera.

my 2 cents, anyway.

[leocg]

leocg Moderator Volunteer last edited by

My guess is that Nokia will most probably adopt Android.

[Deleted User]

Deleted User last edited by

@leocg

My guess is that Nokia will most probably adopt Android.

Spot on.
The Nokia D1C is about to roll out:

http://browser.primatelabs.com/geekbench3/8077533

[leocg]

leocg Moderator Volunteer last edited by

Spot on.
The Nokia D1C is about to roll out:

Interesting.

[Deleted User]

Deleted User last edited by

So, under a new agreement, Nokia Technologies has granted HMD, a new company led by some of the world’s top mobile specialists, an exclusive global license to create a full range of Nokia-branded smartphones, tablets, and feature phones for the next decade.
The new smartphones and tablets will be based on Android, uniting one of the world’s iconic mobile brands, Nokia, with the leading mobile operating system and app development community.

from

http://company.nokia.com/en/our-businesses/nokia-technologies/hello-again

HMD is a subsidiary company of Foxconn.
Maybe a Nokia-branded iPhone clone running Android.

[blackbird71]

blackbird71 last edited by

So they will actually be HMD phones running Android, under a license to use the Nokia name and most likely built at a Foxconn plant. Any connection with iPhones, also built under contract from Apple in Foxconn's facilities, would require a separate license to HMD from Apple - and that would represent a departure from Apple's business strategy that it's unlikely to ever make. Apple is a hardware company, first and foremost, so they won't do anything to encourage hardware competitors.

[Deleted User]

Deleted User last edited by

@blackbird71

sorry to disagree, i consider iphonesto be apple branded foxconns products.

built to apple's specs and packaged in pretty boxes designed by apple, true, but built by a chinese company and there is very little apple could do to stop foxconn from going rogue on them. apple's only intellectual property is the iOS, no exclusive or proprietary hardware components. standard bits and pieces chucked together like any other of the many chinese smartphones, just more difficult to repair by apple's design brief.

the only hardware apple produces these days are a few mac pro desktops. anything else is basically chinese gear badge-engineered to high standards at premium prices.

not wanting to flame here, just a reality check.

and yes, i use apple products. since 1989.