Nokia's basic Series 40 platform isn't the most fashionable OS around, but it remains by far the most successful, with Nokia having revealed it has just sold its 1.5 billionth Series 40 device.
And the phone that saw the milestone reached? Appropriately enough it was a Nokia Asha 303 – one of the latest generation of Series 40 devices looking to push the platform's popularity into the future.
The landmark device was presented directly to Mayara Rodrigues, a 21-year-old a Brazilian woman, in Sao Paolo, with Nokia issuing a press release to mark the occasion.
“We are incredibly proud to reach this milestone. Having 1.5 billion Series 40 devices sold is a hard-to-reach mark, let alone one attainable in a single line of products,” gushed Mary McDowell, executive vice-president of mobile phones at Nokia.
“At a time when we are maintaining our commitment to connecting the next billion customers around the world – it is gratifying to consider how Series 40 devices have made mobile technology accessible and help continue to change people's lives for the better.”
All we need now is a couple of verses of We Are The World and we're all set.
The first Series 40 device was 1999's Nokia 7110, and while the mobile world has changed beyond recognition since then, Series 40 has kept on chugging away, a no-frills platform Nokia has turned to again and again to produce entry-level devices that score highly for both reliability and affordability – all-important considerations in developing markets.
That's not to say Series 40 hasn't evolved, though: new handsets like the Asha 303 feature more smartphone-esque features such as a basic web browser, navigation via Nokia Maps, downloadable Web Apps and Life Tools providing essential services to mobile first-timers in developing nations.
And we imagine there's plenty more to come, considering it's now the only operating platform Nokia actually has.
Either way, it's nice to write a Nokia story that doesn't involve Windows Phone for a change.
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She could have bought any S40 device, and as a reward for being Mrs 1.5 Billion she was given an Asha.
