Two weeks ago, Nokia launched the Nokia X, a smartphone that runs a forked version of Android that’s been redesigned to look like Windows Phone. While no one is sure if the Nokia X is a decent phone, it has certainly not been ignored. Questions have been raised about whether it will be able to run Google Play apps and whether it will be killed off once Microsoft completes its acquisition of Nokia. Now, two weeks later, the phone is on sale for the first time in India, selling for 8,559 rupees ($140), according to India’s Economic Times. Mid-range smartphones are priced between Rs 7,000 and Rs 15,000, so at Rs 8,559, the Nokia X is near the cheaper end of the mid-range smartphone category. Nokia is hoping its X line of smartphones will be a cheap way to enter the smartphone market that will eventually lead to purchases of its flagship Lumia line of smartphones.
“Our primary strategy on smartphones is Lumia and the Nokia X will be a feeder platform into the Lumia. We see the opportunity for Nokia X in the affordable smartphone category where most consumers want the apps from Android,” Nokia India’s managing director P Balaji said to the Economic Times.
While Nokia has not released U.S. pricing for the Nokia X, it will cost €89 in Europe. Nokia will also sell larger versions, called the X+, which will cost €99, and XL, which will cost €109.
