Demo of Nokia Asha 308a and Asha platform OS

Nokia was always trying to offer a smooth transition for the owners of feature phones that are willing to go for smartphones. That transition was the Asha series of Nokia phones that was running Asha Platform OS designed to replace Nokia’s S40 platform. Anyway, when Microsoft acquired Devices & Services department of Nokia, they tried once more to tackle with the Asha platform since Microsoft new that feature phone business was still lucrative, and was most likely saving the Lumia business from bankruptcy. Later Microsoft canceled the prototypes, but Nokia Asha 308a surfaced on the internet as a witness of that effort.

The story is now becoming interesting since we are seeing Nokia Mobile experimenting with KaiOS and FeatureOS, at least until Google finishes up Android for feature phones.
While we are waiting for that, check out a couple of videos I found on YouTube that are showing the Nokia Asha 308a prototype and Asha software Platform.

Here is a video from Hikari Calyx

Another video from Nguyễn Thịnh

Interesting how well it looked and performed. The similarity with the Nokia X platform is also huge :). You can find out more about the software and phone by checking one of our old posts.

Cheers Viccky for a tip and a reminder of this device.