Nokia has launched the C2-00 and X1-01 dual SIM phones for the Indian market.

Unveiling the new phones, Vipul Sabharwal, director sales, Nokia India, said, “We are very proud to present Nokia C2-00 and Nokia X1-01 that meet stringent quality standards and have set new benchmarks in the mobile internet and music space in the entry level dual SIM category.”

Both devices come with Nokia’s innovative services including Nokia Life Tools which provide consumers with a wide range of information covering healthcare, agriculture, education and entertainment.

Nokia C2-00

The Nokia C2-00 have the Easy Swap feature, which offers consumers the convenience of changing SIM cards without the need to turn off the phone or remove the battery. Just open the SIM door at the side of the phone and swap your SIMs.

With the Nokia C2-00, users can also browse the internet, read emails and enjoy instant Messaging with either SIM card.

At a whopping 32 GB expandable memory, the Nokia C2-00 lets you keep thousands of photos, videos and music files with you all the time. The intuitive Nokia C2-00 also remembers the settings for up to five separate SIM cards.

Nokia X1-01

Nokia X1-01 comes with loud sound and great music clarity, claims the company. According to Nokia, its jumbo battery delivers upto 36 hours of continued music playback. The in-built loudspeakers provide sound output at a whopping 106 phon.

Nokia X1-01 comes with 16 GB of memory support. Its music player allows consumers to select songs and create favourite playlists.

The device also allows users to personalise their dual SIM experience with their own SIM name, call or SMS settings, logo, ringtone or music. It remembers the settings for up to five separate SIM cards. It has an innovative ‘cost tracker’ application to help consumers control their calling expenses.

Nokia X1-01 also comes pre-loaded with Nokia Money to help deliver financial independence to entry consumers.

Tata Docomo, the GSM arm of Tata Teleservices, today announced the launch of its micro SIM cards, for its 3G services, for those devices which otherwise do not have enough space for regular SIM cards or even mini-SIMs.

The company offers quite a few plans on micro SIM. After purchasing the micro SIM, a user has to first get it recharged for Rs 109 which allows the user to enjoy all the available 3G services for 30 days with 500 MB free data download.

They also offer highly affordable plans for unlimited usage, on prepay as well as postpay. For data intensive users, such as downloading games, movies and music, you can subscribe to an unlimited plan on 3G for Rs 1,000 per month.

Recently the company has launched 3G WiFi hub that enables multiple users and devices to share wireless Internet access and stay connected on the go.
Tata Docomo launched it 3G services in India in November 2010. 3G enables you to enjoy services like live streaming, video calling and high speed data transfer via your 3G compatible devices.

As of now, Bharti Airtel has the highest number of 3G subscribers in the country with 3 million subscribers followed by Tata DoCoMo with 1.5 million users.

Qualcomm, which makes mobile hardware, has announced a game pack comprising 100 games for Snapdragon-based mobile devices. The Snapdragon game pack is specifically targeted towards optimising these games for devices running on the Qualcomm Snapdragon system on chip.

The Snapdragon game pack would bring significant improvement to present games that are using the graphics capability of the embedded Adreno GPUs (Graphics Processing Units) in Snapdragon mobile processors.

To begin with, the Snapdragon game pack comprises more than 100 mobile games including Assassins creed HD, Asphalt 6, Nova HD, Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X HD and Real Soccer 2011 HD. These games are also accessible to the Android users via the Android Market and developer stores.

The programme also aims at optimising several other games available on the Google Android market place.

As the whole world gets ready to observe the World Environment Day on June 5, different organisations and companies are planning a slew of activities to observe the day. We wondered on what the mobile users and even the mobile phone companies could do or were already doing to save the environment.

The issue of e-wastage has over the years attracted lot of attention. With increasing mobile penetration, the issue has further gained ground. According to an estimate there are already five billion mobile subscribers worldwide today. There are many more unused handsets. With each passing day the monster of e-waste generating from these discarded handsets grows bigger.

Notably, in UK only the unused phones worth 2.7 billion pounds are lying unused. In the worldwide context, this figure definitely would be lot more.

The role of ordinary mobile phone user, thus gains importance. Many handset manufacturers and organisations recycle old handsets and use those materials to produce new ones.

Cellphones contain many different substances that are toxic and potentially hazardous to the environment and health. These include ferrous and non-ferrous metals, lead, magnesium, copper, mercury, plastics, glass, liquid crystals, barium, concrete, ceramics, rubber, arsenic etc.

Hence, it becomes crucial that m-waste is disposed of in a proper manner. Also, after recycling, the materials obtained can be used to make useful items such as utensils and benches. In fact, metals extracted from e-waste are resold in the commodity market by recycling agencies not only in India but worldwide.

We have already discussed this in one of our earlier article.
Handset manufacturers have also a big role to play here. Many manufacturers are already making phones which are 80 per cent recyclable. Also, they make these handsets in such a way to reduce their carbon footprint by a significant amount.

For example, Nokia has e-waste dumpers where users can dump their old mobile phones. Another mobile company, Sony Ericsson has also launched GreenHeart programme in which it manufactures only green phones. The green phones later launched by the company had a reduced carbon footprint – about 15 per cent lower. The plastics used by the company were recycled, and solvents in the phones were also reduced. Sony Ericsson plans to cut emissions by 20 per cent before 2015.

Most of the carbon footprint reduction happens due to less use of paper in the packaging of the phone. Even the user manual was replaced with electronic user manual on the phone itself.

There are no plastic bags within the box either, and about 80 per cent of the plastic used in the phone is recycled plastic. The solvents in the paint have now been replaced by water soluble colours.

Sony Ericsson also intends to increase the scope of its recycling activities by collecting used phones from its customers. The company intends to collect one million phones starting this year itself. Some green activists, however, responded by saying the company should increase the number of its recycling points across the world.

We can also do our part to save the nature by choosing e-bill facilities instead of paper bills. This step alone will save large number of trees. For example, a report said that for every 3,000 bills that a company send to its customers, it has to cut one tree.

Now there are more mobile customers, users can easily imagine the effect of users opting for paper bills on the environment.

Nokia will announce two more entry-level dual SIM handsets in India on June 4 at an event. Though no details of the products have been divulged by the company, we believe that the two handsets will be X1-01 and C2-06.

The new Dual-SIM offerings, from Nokia, promises consistent battery life, Messaging and music features. Nokia claims that the new handsets are capable of storing settings of up to five different SIM modules. Both phones carry a dual-standby feature that enables receiving call and message notifications on both SIM modules rather than turning SIM cards on or off.

Nokia X1-01 promises 13 hours of talk-time and 43 days of standby time. As part of the X-series, the new X1-01 is a music-centered device and boasts to be the loudest amongst the entry level lot. One can add up to 16GB Memory card for storage to play music files using built-in MP3 and also enjoy the FM radio. Its 3.5mm jack also would allow you to plug in your favourite pair of headphones.
This dual-SIM handset also allows setting a custom ringtone or logo to each SIM for up to five SIM cards.

Last year Nokia launched the C1-00 and C2-00 dual-SIM handsets and this time we believe that the C2-06 will see the day of light. Nokia C2-06 will run Symbian Series 40 operating system and will have resistive touchscreen with slide-out keypad. Besides a 2 Megapixel camera, C2-06 will have 3.5mm Audio Jack for putting your favourite pair of earphones.

Let’s wait till June 4 to see what Nokia has to offer for the dual-SIM cellphone segment.