Nokia announced a new smartphone to lineup Asha family with the introduction of the Nokia Asha 501 in India. The Nokia Asha 501 is made of only two parts to make it more durable and cheaper to manufacture. The back is removable to access the microSIM, the pre-installed 4GB microSD card and support expandable memory up to 32GB.

The Asha 501 is the first smartphone built on the new Asha platform. The Nokia Asha 501 is available in single or EasySwap Dual SIM models.

Many of the most popular applications are already available or in development for the Nokia Asha platform, including CNN, eBuddy, ESPN, Facebook, Foursquare, Line, LinkedIn, Nimbuzz, Pictelligent, The Weather Channel, Twitter, WeChat, World of Red Bull and games from Electronic Arts, Gameloft, Indiagames, Namco-Bandai and Reliance Games. WhatsApp and other key partners continue to explore new Asha.

Nokia Asha 501 sports with 3.2 Megapixel fixed focus camera and also supports Wi-fi, bluetooth 3.0 and microUSB 2.0. The Nokia Asha 501 measures 99.2 x 58 x 12.1mm and weights of 98g. The available colors are Bright Red, Bright Green, Cyan, Yellow, White and Black.

The Nokia Asha 501 will start shipping in June in 90 countries on 60 operators. It will cost $99 before taxes and subsidies for the single-SIM version. For more details visit Nokia Asha 501.