On June 24^th Nokia had officially announced the availability of the Nokia Asha 501 smartphone. Asha 501 is the first smartphone that runs on Nokia’s new Asha Platform. The sales of the device will start in this week in Thailand and Pakistan. In India the device will be available soon. Currently the Asha 501 is shipping in selected Asian markets. Later the device will be available in the following weeks in the countries in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Asia-Pacific and Latin America.

The Price of the device is $99 without taxes and subsidies. The device is available in six different color variantscyan, bright red, yellow, bright green, black and white. The device comes with scratch-resistant, tempered glass display.

Timo Toikkanen, executive vice president, Mobile Phones, Nokia said that the “Nokia Asha 501 helps the user to access everything by a simple swipe", "Coupled with beautiful design in both style and substance, offered at a great price”. The Swipe unlocks the phone and closes apps. With the help of the Swipe the user can switch between two screens “Home” and “Fastlane”.

Home has a traditional application launcher. Fastlane is the second screen that displays recent activity on the phone as well as upcoming events. It also supports social integration with Facebook and Twitter. The device is pre-loaded with Nokia Xpress Browser which compresses Internet data by up to 90%. It is also loaded with Nimbuzz and WeChat Apps.