Can Nokia take on the dual-SIM market?

Q: Key Point 5: The Nokia C1-00 has a suggested retail price of Php2,070...

The Nokia C1-00 has a suggested retail price of Php2,070 and is available in red or medium blue at all Nokia Stores and authorized distributors nationwide.

So Nokia finally released their first dual-SIM phone in the Philippines, the Nokia C1-00. It’s a pretty basic phone but one that challenges the strong presence of local dual-SIM phone brands in the country.

There are at least 3 local phone brands that are competing in the dual-SIM and triple-SIM market — Cherry Mobile, Torque and MyPhone. That does not include the SG-based Verzio that came into the Philippines back in 2007.

Nokia C1-00 owners will also benefit from a large phonebook that can store up to 500 entries, a multi-phonebook for up to 5 users, a large memory enough to store 250 messages, standby battery time of up to six weeks with up to 13 hours talk time, the longest ever for a Nokia mobile phone.

For good measure, Nokia added a Flashlight feature and built-in FM radio tuner.

In my previous interview with Nokia executives in SG a few months back, they claim it’s not too late to enter the dual-SIM market. And while the target market does not really draw that much margins, the only approach is to generate tons of sales of these cheap phones.

I read somewhere (a year ago) that Torque was selling over 20,000 units a month while another source tells me Cherry Mobile sells close to 100,00 units per month. If you bring in the numbers from MyPhone and the other China-phones, that’s a huge volume.

Nokia has the trusted brand, network and resources to penetrate this market. The question is, will they also dominate it the same way they dominated the other segments of the mobile market? Only time will tell.

The Nokia C1-00 has a suggested retail price of Php2,070 and is available in red or medium blue at all Nokia Stores and authorized distributors nationwide.

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Abe Olandres

Abe is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of YugaTech with over 20 years of experience in the technology industry. He is one of the pioneers of blogging in the country and considered by many as the Father of Tech Blogging in the Philippines. He is also a technology consultant, a tech columnist with several national publications, resource speaker and mentor/advisor to several start-up companies.

https://www.yugatech.com

63 Comments

Vdiz0nJr88 says:

15 years ago

🥉 Rookie🏆1

it looks nice! I think I will buy one.
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Spidey says:

15 years ago

🌱 Noobs🏆1

samsung and lg has their dual-sim line up too, abe.
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Abe Olandres says:

15 years ago

🥉 Rookie🏆3

@spidey – but Nokia has an estimated 6 out of 10 market share in the Phils.

Wakocoke says:

15 years ago

🥉 Bronze🏆1

yown! a reliable cheap dual sim phone from nokia!
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deuts says:

15 years ago

🥈 Silver🏆1

but this one’s not dual-standby, right?
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Tammy says:

15 years ago

🌱 Noobs🏆1

I wonder if this is triband. I need one for the US
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Teknisyan says:

15 years ago

🥈 Silver🏆1

About time… hope its not too late!! ;)
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dude2cool says:

15 years ago

🌱 Noobs🏆1

Hope its dual standby… I’d absolutely get it.
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Mike W. says:

15 years ago

🥉 Bronze🏆1

I’d still go for a fake blackberry china phone… dual standby, same price…
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hume says:

15 years ago

🥉 Rookie🏆1

oh and nokia, i want you to know that samsung is eating up your market faster than you could even mutter WAIT!

gawd, the last nokia phone i used was such a disaster i grabbed a samsung with android os and never looked back! i used around 7 nokia phones and i was loving symbian until 5800 came up. what a disaster phone that was! unresponsive and very clunky. it creaked like hell and whenever i touch 1 icon, a different one opens!

grabe nokia! adieu! next stop HTC! android ftw
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RJCA says:

15 years ago

🌱 Noobs🏆1

Wait for the C2, both sims are active. :>
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jojo says:

15 years ago

🌱 Noobs🏆1

hopefully the next dual-sim cellphone from nokia will have much better features, say in the mold of my old yet trusty and reliable e51…
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loadex says:

15 years ago

🥉 Rookie🏆1

not dual standby.. need to press a button to activate the other sim.

A dealer friend has been selling this model for over a month now, and not selling that much. Pinoys are familiar to the Torque and Cherrymobile dual standyby system, akala ng bumibili ganun din.. ayun at the end of the day, gusto na palitan.
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superdan says:

15 years ago

🌱 Noobs🏆1

i think if nokia can release mid to high end phones with this feature, they can very well dominate the philippine market. though ang alam ko sa mga dual sim is you can’t activate the two sim cards at a time. though i’ve seen a samsung phone do this.

anyways, if they can do it properly, nokia can very well top cherry and torque in this category. mas kilala na kasi and trusted ang brand nila.
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vince says:

15 years ago

🥉 Bronze🏆2

this is a dual sim phone (GSM 900 / 1800)

both sims will not work simultaneously, you have to choose which one is active. So if somone calls you on the inactive number …
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vince says:

15 years ago

🥉 Bronze🏆2

full specs here

http://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_c1_00-3364.php
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Manny says:

15 years ago

🥇 Gold🏆1

i’ve heard problems on the CherryMobile. Anybody care to comment on the quality of the Torque?
thanks…
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MobilePinas says:

15 years ago

🌱 Noobs🏆1

this unit (Nokia C1-00) is not in dual standby, so you have switch your sim just to use the other sim slot.
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Jay says:

15 years ago

🌱 Noobs🏆1

@MobilePinas is Right! Its not Dual standy and you must switch your SIM just to use the other SIM. This Nokia Phone like the Samsung Dual Sim. what is the use of being Dual SIM if you need to switch SIM. Many people needed a mobilephone that is dualsim and dualstandy. Hope NOKIA Realize this…
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raymond says:

15 years ago

🥈 Silver🏆1

For the price, I’ll buy this instead.

http://myphone.com.ph/product_info.php?cPath=1&products_id=23

Has more features than the basic Nokia phone. Tulong pa sa Filipino products.

Price is not that much, so the “risk”is manageable.
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Vincent Linsangan Maldia says:

15 years ago

🥉 Bronze🏆2

“The main draw to the Nokia C2 is obviously the dual SIM functionality. The Nokia C2 can keep both SIM cards active; meaning calls and text messages can come to either number while the phone is on. The first SIM card on the Nokia C2 sits underneath the battery. The second SIM card is â€˜hot-swappableâ€™, a feature unique to Nokia, meaning it can be removed and inserted when the phone is on”

http://conversations.nokia.com/2010/06/03/dual-sim-nokia-c2-revealed-photo-gallery/

better than the C1 since both sim cards are on all the time, although its still only dual band
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Jamby says:

15 years ago

🌱 Noobs🏆1

Is this Dual Active Standby also Sir Abe??
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Pedro says:

15 years ago

🥉 Rookie🏆1

i’ll just wait for the dual stand-by(NOKIA)… thanks for the tips… :p
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yizhan says:

15 years ago

🥉 Bronze🏆1

Its about time that NOKIA make move.. hopefully ma-release young dual standby.
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Ton says:

15 years ago

🥇 Gold🏆1

Shouldn’t they be worried instead with the market that once upon a pre-blackberry time almost exclusively used Communicators?
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Guy Radaza says:

15 years ago

🥉 Rookie🏆1

pretty kewl and cheap!
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MIke says:

15 years ago

🌱 Noobs🏆1

its not dual standy sand to say that.
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Jes says:

15 years ago

🌱 Noobs🏆1

Better wait for the C2-00. Kelan kaya labas at magkano?
- Reply
Andrew John P. Young says:

15 years ago

🌱 Noobs🏆1

well, too little too late… but it sure looks like a good sturdy phone
- Reply
netbooksearcher says:

15 years ago

🥉 Rookie🏆1

Yeah, kailan ba lalabas ang Nokia C2-00? Yun na lang ang bibilhin ko.
- Reply
Lzly says:

15 years ago

🌱 Noobs🏆1

hi.. does any1 know if c2 is already out of the market? and how much does it cost??? im pretty intrested.. tenx!
- Reply