Nokia relaunches 3310 handset and trio of smartphones

Nokia's newly-revived phone business made a retro move yesterday launching a brightly coloured version of the classic 3310 talk and text phone, the world's most popular device in the year 2000.

The new model which figures a bigger screen is priced only €49 ($52), with its 22 hours of talk time and up to one month of standby time adding to the device's appeal as a backup for smartphone users.

Though the move was welcomed by analysts, they also point out that the move could mar the company's re-entry into the global smartphone market. The company also launched three smartphones at prices ranging from €139 to €299.

"The love for the brand is immense. It gets a lot of affection from millions and millions of people," Nokia chief executive Rajeev Suri told a news conference at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the telecom industry's largest annual trade fair.

Nokia was at one time the leading handset maker globally, but in 2014 sold its by-then ailing handset operations to Microsoft for $7 billion. The company, though retained its network equipment business and a large patent portfolio.

But the Nokia brand was revived last year, after it licensed its devices brand to HMD Global, a new company led by ex-Nokia executives and backed by Chinese electronics giant Foxconn.

Nokia and HMD Global finally brought out the international variant of the Nokia 6 along with Nokia 5 and Nokia 3.

Nokia 6 is already available in the Chinese market, and is selling faster than the company could supply them.

According to HMD, a majority of buyers in China were from the 'next generation'; for HMD Global this meant customers who had never held a Nokia phone.

According to commentators, the highlight of the Nokia phones was the premium design, and the overall form factor which was much like the older and now defunct Nokia Lumia smartphones.