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You can’t keep a good phone down: The iconic Nokia 3310 regarded as the ‘Mr Muscle’ of mobile phones, is coming back, according to reports.
Industry analyst Evan Blass, writing in VentureBeat, reports that a relaunch of the brick-like phone is planned for the end of the month. The Nokia 3310, first launched 17 years ago, has achieved cult status - it was extremely hardy, with a great battery and a now-iconic design.
Although it was phased out long ago many are still available on the secondhand market in Bahrain and remain popular with devotees. Sri-Lankan housemaid Chandrika Hakuru, who lives in Saar, is a fan.
“I love my Nokia, it’s so simple to use and never breaks, even when I drop it,” she said. The device is so old it doesn’t even have a colour screen and Nokia lost its market-leading position with the dawn of the iPhone and the smartphone era.
HMD Global, the Finnish company that now makes Nokia phones, is reportedly preparing to launch a ‘modern version’ of the 3310 ahead of Mobile World Congress, a mobile industry conference to be held in Barcelona, Spain, on Sunday.
It sounds as if the new 3310 will not be a perfect reproduction, more a ‘homage’ to the original. Colour screen? Camera? Apps? None of these are exactly cutting-edge, but they would all be a major step forward on the original’s basic feature set.
It will reportedly retail for around BD24. An HMD Global representative declined to comment on ‘rumours or speculation’. Mobile World Congress is scheduled to run from next Monday to March 2.
