Nokia World 2011 news roundup: Announcement of Lumia 710 and Lumia 800 Mango smartphones, S40 Asha Range, Monster Purity HD Stereo headphones, and more

October 25 just might go down in history as the day that Nokia took the power back from Apple, Google, and all Android device makers in the worldwide smartphone arena. This year's Nokia World expo in London saw the introduction of not one, but two Windows Phone Mango powered smartphones from Nokia. These are the Nokia Lumia 710 and the Nokia Lumia 800. Meanwhile, Nokia also took the time to launch a total of four new Series 40-powered feature phones, an entire range of new handsets, and these are the Nokia Asha 200, Nokia Asha 201, Nokia Asha 300, and Nokia Asha 303. Also announced were two new headphones from Monster as part of a new Purity HD Stereo headphone line.

So now that the proverbial cat is out of the bag, what's next for Nokia? Since virtually none of the products that were just announced are going to make it market until next month at least, you and I are going to have to wait for a bit to see what happens next. I've seen Windows Phone Mango in action, and I know it's a platform that holds a lot of promise. I think Series 40 has evolved in the right direction, so it deserves to be kept alive in more Nokia feature phones in the future. As far as tech specs go, the new Nokia devices announced today could have been better. But slightly tweaking the N9 to have a smaller screen, better processor, and switching to Windows Phone Mango instead of MeeGo... this might actually be the right move after all.

Anyway, it's really too early to say for sure whether or not Nokia will succeed with its new strategy. I side with what Neil Mawston (an analyst at Strategy Analytics in Milton Keynes, England) said in a recent interview with the New York Times: “One thing I have learned in this business is to never say never.” (Funny guy, he just said 'never' twice.)

Nokia debuts new S40 line: Asha 200, Asha 201, Asha 300, and Asha 303 officially launched

With the launch of the high-end Lumia 800 and the slightly more affordable Lumia 710 Windows Phone Mango smartphones at its most recent trade show in London, it's evident that Nokia has been trying to make major strides to compete with Apple's iPhone and the many Google Android-powered devices that flood the market today. But what about Nokia's bread-and-butter, the mass market category of cellphones that made the Finnish giant a household name? Doesn't Nokia have anything to offer for the people? Why, yes, of course it does. Nokia took the opportunity it had today to launch a total of four new Series 40 feature phones, each with a special feature going on in order to entice consumers to put them into their pockets.

All four of the new Series 40 feature phones announced at the Nokia World expo today belong to a new line of phones: the Nokia Asha range. These are the Nokia Asha 200, Nokia Asha 201, Nokia Asha 300, and Nokia Asha 303. These not-quite-high-end but far-from-basic handsets from Nokia are intended for the everyman. Read on for a detailed run-down of what makes each of them so special.