Nokia unveils 41 megapixel smartphone

Nokia unveils 41 megapixel smartphone

Esther Samboh, The Jakarta Post, Barcelona, Spain | Tue, 02/28/2012 11:21 AM

A | A | A |

Nokia, the world’s largest mobile manufacturer, told the world’s leading mobile phone conference that it plans to release a smartphone with a staggering 41-megapixel camera sensor.

Meanwhile, the company would also release a new inexpensive smartphone, the Nokia Lumia 610, expected to be sold for 189 euros (US$254.05) excluding subsidies and taxes, in the second quarter, Nokia executive vice president for smart devices Jo Harlow said at the 2012 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, on Monday.

Nokia shifted strategy last year, replacing its own software on its smartphone with Microsoft’s Windows Phone operating system, in response to continued challenges from rival products such as Apple’s iPhone and Android handsets.

But the move had limited impact due to the high prices of smartphones using Microsoft’s operating system.

Terry Myerson, head of the Windows Phone division at Microsoft, said that the memory requirements for Windows Phone had been lowered to 256 megabytes to make a more attractive price point for customers.

“With other smartphone platforms, lower prices have meant lower quality. But with Windows phones, consumers can receive a great Windows Phone experience,” Myerson said at the briefing.

Smartphones are expected to meet growing demands from price-oriented markets, such as emerging nations like Indonesia, which has seen soaring consumer purchasing power against stable economic growth, despite the global slowdown, Nokia executive vice president for sales Colin Giles said in an interview.

Stephen Elop, president and CEO of Nokia, said that recognizing challenges and changing strategies would be the company’s main strategies to survive the rapidly expanding smartphone market.

“We are demonstrating the action necessary to improve the fortunes of Nokia,” he told a press briefing. “With great products at the heart of consumers, I think the rest could fall in quite nicely.”

Harlow said that Nokia’s mammoth megapixel smartphone, the Nokia 808 PureView, would usher in a revolution in smartphone imaging with its 41-megapixel sensor, Carl Zeiss optics and Nokia-developed pixel over-sampling
technology.

At standard resolutions of up to 8 megapixels, the Nokia 808 PureView will be able to zoom in without loss of clarity, while at its highest resolution of 38 megapixels, the Nokia 808 would be able to capture an image, zoom, reframe, crop and resize to expose previously unseen levels of details.

“The price before taxes and subsidies is estimated at about 450 euros and it is expected to start rolling out in May,” Harlow said.

Nokia also unveiled three new Asha mobile devices, aimed at over 100 markets globally, further blurring the line between feature phones and smartphones.

up all night|amzn|kristin cavallari|redskins|alpe d huez