Nokia hits 1.5 billion sales of revolutionary Series 40 mobile phones

Nokia yesterday announced one of the most significant milestones in its history with the sale of its 1.5 billionth Series 40 mobile phone.

The device was sold to a female consumer in the Brazilian city of São Paulo and represents a historic moment as Nokia continues its strategy of connecting the next billion.

The 1.5 billionth phone was a Nokia Asha 303, a stunning touch screen handset with QWERTY keypad designed for web browsing, social networking and gaming, that features pre-installed entertainment and applications such as Angry Birds Lite.

The device was purchased from a Magazine Luiza store in São Paulo by Mayara Rodrigues, a 21-year-old who loves staying in touch with friends and family through social networks.

 “Series 40 is undoubtedly one of the most successful businesses ever and I really want to congratulate all the people who have been working on developing, manufacturing, selling and marketing the phones over the years,” says Antti Vasara, head of Featurephone Product Development, Mobile Phones. “There are people who have been part of the Series 40 development since the beginning, when the Nokia 7110 was developed - the first of the Series 40 family phones. I had a personal consumer relation as I was using Nokia 7110 over three years, before joining Nokia,” Antti continues.

Series 40 has brought mobile technology to more than a billion ordinary people, and helped change their lives for the better. Over the years Nokia has increased the utility of the phone by adding features and capabilities beyond calling and texting - and many of these debuted on Series 40 devices. With these features and innovations Nokia is feeding the vast appetite for digital consumption and addressing the real needs of the next billion consumers.

Series 40 has over the years been bringing mobile internet to affordable price points. And it is always trying to give people more of what they want in their own local environments – whether that means supporting over 80 languages, making more powerful speakers for louder music in busy, music-loving places like India, QWERTY inputs for messaging-crazed places like Mexico and Indonesia, or simply providing phones in bright, exciting colors.

Since the late 1990’s Series 40 phones have become even ‘smarter’ – with recent innovations blurring the line between feature phones and smartphones.

“We’ve planted the seeds for Series 40; these are not ‘dumb phones’ - they are as smart as possible. In reality, the distinction between a smart phone and a feature phone is fairly technical, and when a consumer thinks about a smart phone they think about accessing the internet, downloading apps, a nice display… and these are all things we can, and do, deliver with Series 40,” says Mary McDowell, head of Mobile Phones.

Our Next Billion consumers are young and urban, hyper-social - and as aspirational as any other mobile phone user. They want the smartest phones at prices they can afford. Innovations such as Dual SIM with Easy Swap, Play via Radio, Angry Birds Lite on a Series 40 phone, and social clients, foursquare and QQ, are responding to their needs.

With Nokia Maps for Series 40, Nokia Browser and Web Apps, Nokia Money and Nokia Life Tools we are giving millions of consumers easy and affordable access to internet and information with locally relevant apps and content. In fact, one-third of downloads from Nokia Store are now on Series 40, thanks in large part to Nokia Browser.

“I have a pin from 2003 that remarks a milestone of the 100 millionth Series 40 phone. That was a great milestone - so you can imagine my excitement, when we hit the 1.5 billion,” says Antti. “I am looking forward to reaching new milestones with Series 40 and Series 30 phones. Nokia is very committed to future success of Series 40 and Series 30 so you can expect to see many more new things coming from us.”