Nokia has launched Nokia Asha 210, a single and dual-SIM handset with QWERTY keypad and a dedicated WhatsApp button. Free WhatsApp Subscription For Life Nokia has also partnered with WhatsApp to offer the service free for life on all Nokia Asha 210 devices. WhatsApp typically charges a $1.99 yearly fee to use the service after an initial one-year free subscription. (However, we haven't been charged yet although we keep getting alerts that the service will be going paid soon). We believe this partnership is quite an interesting and a significant one, considering that the service is quite popular in the country. I personally have seen people upgrading from feature phones to smartphones in the past year to use the service with their friends. So Nokia is probably hoping to tap into this market with Nokia Asha 210, while WhatsApp will hoping for an increased user base and a better market penetration in the country, where there is a plethora of data messaging products like Bharti Softbank’s Hike, Imsy and Tencent’s WeChat among others. Functionality-wise, this partnership is nothing new and there have been similar partnerships in the past: In 2011, Vodafone had launched Vodafone Blue with a Facebook quick access button. In 2010, Tata Docomo had launched the OneTouch Net Phone from Alcatel, its first co-branded handset, with a suite of Yahoo‘s services pre-loaded, along with buttons to launch Yahoo services and Tata Docomo’s Dive In portal. Another way to look at it: Whatsapp has been trying to partner with various companies to enjoy better market penetration. Earlier, it had signed a telco partnership deal with…
Handsets
Nokia Asha 210 Offers Free WhatsApp Subscription & Dedicated Button; Nokia-Getit Partnership
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