Companies like Huwei are already refiguring the Android phone equation to suit second-time phone buyers, and bringing prices for unsubsidized touchscreen smartphones well under $200, edging ever closer to $100. Nokia’s C3 series has Wi-Fi, a 2.0MP camera, a full, metal-keyed QWERTY keyboard, microSD storage and an App Store. It comes with Facebook and Twitter access out of the box. Depending on tariffs, it sells for around $100 worldwide. It’s coming to America, soon making an appearance on Wal-Mart’s shelves. The price? $80. It’s the anti-N8: Fairly simple, very cheap, and so far, wildly popular.
This is what the next generation of the mega-selling phone will look like. They’ll be rough facsimiles of the high-end smartphones forged for well-heeled buyers, stripped of fat and excess—an embodiment of compromise. They’ll be 90% of the phone for 20% of the price, with FM radios instead of digital music stores, and flashlights instead of LED flashes
The Committee to Nuke Elysium 