According to a tweet from Irish Telecom Carrier called Three, the 3G version of the Nokia 3310 is indeed launching. The carrier’s Twitter account was replying to queries from a consumer, and the tweet says, “We will be ranging the 3G version of the Nokia 3310, the current launch date of late is September early October.” So we could see HMD Global announce a 3G version of the Nokia 3310 soon, and this phone will be available from late September or early October.Nokia 3310 is the feature phone from HMD Global that banked on a rush of nostalgia when it was first announced back in February. The phone has since gone on sale in markets across the world, including India, where it was launched for Rs 3,310. But one of the problems with this feature phone was the lack of 3G, which could change soon.
Previously we’ve seen reports of how the Nokia 3310 with 3G support has got clearances from the US FCC, so a launch might not be far off. Of course for users who already bought the Nokia 3310, this will come as a bad news. In a market like India, a Nokia-branded feature phone still carries a lot of value, and Nokia 3310 was ideal for capitalising on this. But Nokia 3310’s 2G only capabilities make it seem an expensive proposition.
This became more evident when we’re seeing 4G VoLTE feature phones being launched in the market at much lower prices than the Nokia 3310. The biggest example of this is the Reliance Jio JioPhone, which will go on sale in September and offers some smart capabilities like the ability to watch JioTV on the phone itself. Plus this is 4G VoLTE enabled.
Indian-player Intex has also announced its own 4G VoLTE feature phone. Another player Lava also has a 4G-enable feature phone in the market for sometime now. These phones cost less than the current Nokia 3310. Given how 4G is spreading, even a 3G version of Nokia 3310 will have a tough time in India.
Another issue with the feature phones in India right now is that most don’t have a version of WhatsApp supported, which is one of the most popular apps in the market. Nokia 3310 currently doesn’t support loading of many apps, and has limited storage.
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