Doesn't seem like that long ago that Nokia totally juiced its low-end offerings, but the world of inexpensive ear candy moves just as quickly as the rest of the market -- if not quicker -- and so the fleet is getting rejuvenated just a tad. The 1209 (pictured left) is naturally the lower end of the pair, a phone that Nokia has specifically designed for the concept of "phone sharing" that is largely unique to emerging markets; special features include extra cost tracking apps and separate phonebooks for up to five users. The more interesting of the two is the 2600 classic, featuring interchangeable Xpress-on (wow, it's been a while since we've heard that word) covers, support for MP3 ringtones, a VGA cam, and integrated FM radio. Look for the 1209 to start shipping next quarter for a mere €35 (about $51) while the 2600 classic has already kicked off deliveries for €65 (about $95).

From our "never have so many handsets collectively interested us so little" department come these six gems, all Moto candybars from the low-end "W" line that are presumably destined primarily for emerging markets. We've yet to see any press releases detailing exactly what Motorola intends to do with these, but the imagery in its media database pretty much says it all; heck, two of the six even have monochrome displays (and no, they aren't e-ink, either). Four of the handsets -- the W156, W160, W175, and W180 -- do at least carry over the F3's wedge-shaped slim design, while the last two, the W206 and W213, look like they're straight outta 2003. We'll pass on this bunch, but if you want to send us a GSM 850 / 1900 MOTOFONE, guys, be our guest!

Avert your eyes if you're married to S60 -- you'll find nary a smartphone here -- but Nokia's mustered a new slew of devices for emerging markets today that cover the full spectrum of form factors and radio technologies. Starting from the upper left, the lowly 1200 keeps things about as simple as they possibly could be with a throwback monochrome display, 32-chord ringtones, a "dust-resistant" keypad, and an integrated flashlight. The 1208 takes a small step up, swapping out the monochrome screen for a color one but otherwise keeping specs the same. The 1650 moves yet a little more upmarket with a considerably larger screen, though the keypad apparently loses dust resistance in the process. The 2505 is a CDMA (!) flip that maintains the integrated flashlight and rocks downloadable ringtones and wallpapers, a speakerphone, and a handful of integrated games and tools. Onto the second row starting at the left, the 2630 re-ups the 1650's formula and adds Bluetooth, GPRS data, and a VGA cam (heck, this seems like a perfectly decent handset for... uh, emerged markets, let alone emerging ones) -- and get this -- it becomes Nokia's thinnest phone, period, at 9.9 millimeters. The 2660 does the 2630's features in flip form, but loses the cam in the conversion -- but no worries, you can get it back with the 2760. Did ya get all that? Look for all of 'em to launch in the middle of this year in "select markets" for between €35 and €90 ($48 and $123) -- not bad at all, considering those are unsubsidized prices.

They may not turn any heads, but UTStarcom's new low-end fleet led the company's somewhat quiet presence at CTIA last week. The CDM7026 and CDM7076 flips are nearly dead ringers for one another, though the 7076 ups the ante with a black and white external display, TFT primary display (as opposed to the 7026's CSTN), and a VGA cam; features common to both models include 8MB of RAM, 32MB of Flash, MP3 ringtones, and a 3.7 x 1.9 x 0.7-inch outline. Next up, the presently-unnamed "Ultra-Thin, Bar-Style Camera Phone" here comes equipped with Virgin Mobile branding, suggesting it'll follow up the Slice. At just over 10 millimeters thick, the candybar is reasonably well-equipped with 64MB of onboard storage, Bluetooth, speakerphone, voice dialing, and a VGA cam. No word on a release (or what carriers will get the flips, for that matter), but we reckon Virgin and UTStarcom have to look into naming this one before they can be thinking about dropping it.

It seems Sony Ericsson prefers to use the more pleasant-sounding term "accessible" to describe the most lowly four of the handset barrage it's whipped out ahead of 3GSM, but let's just be straight up and tell it like it is -- these things are cheap. Hey, that's not a bad thing; Europe's number two manufacturer is holding its own on the high end, and we're all about covering every segment of the market. Going in order from left to right, the J110 is the... ahem, most accessible of the four with little more than an anemic 96 x 64 color display to its name. Next up the J120 takes the J110's formula and throws in an FM radio to add an ultra-affordable musicphone (if we dare use the term) to the stable. The K200 ups the display to 128 x 128 and tacks on a VGA cam, while the K220 gets the same FM radio as its cheaper J120 cousin. The J110 and K200 will come in 900 / 1800 and 850 / 1900 flavors for various parts of the globe, while the more expensive models will initially hold to 900 / 1800. Look for all four to hit in the second quarter of the year.

Once in a great while, it's refreshing to take a step back from the madness of modern phone tech and take a look at the simpler side of mobility -- a segment of the industry where the ability to reliably place and receive calls is the priority, not which mobile TV standard or memory expansion format such-and-such device is supporting. Such is the Samsung C140: a candybar with no camera, no QVGA display (128 x 128 suffices here), and no "world's firsts," just a GSM 900 / 1800 radio with 700KB of memory, MMS, a WAP browser, Java support, and an unwavering desire to be sold contract-free for peanuts. Looks like it's already available in some parts of the world for under €50 (about $65) unsubsidized, which squarely pits this thing against the MOTOFONE. Small color display or e-ink? Decisions, decisions...

[Via Unwired View, thanks Staska]

Sony Ericsson may only be teasing us right now on the high end, but the low end's looking a lot clearer today with the introduction of the W200 Walkman phone. The small-but-pudgy candybar just barely qualifies for musicphone status with a meager 27MB of internal storage, though the Memory Stick Micro slot comes in handy for remedying the situation. Other features include a VGA cam, 160 x 128 display, FM radio, and a 900 / 1800 / 1900 or 850 / 1800 / 1900 GSM radio topping out with GPRS data (no EDGE -- now that's low end!). Availability should kick off in the second quarter at an undisclosed price, though we're not too worried about this bad boy pricing itself out of the market. Follow the break for hands-on pics!

Anyone else notice that most of the fanfare surrounding the concept of the almost-free unsubsidized handset has been largely restricted to the GSM camp? Sure, we have occasional CDMA examples like Kyocera's K122 and K132 -- but with all due respect to Kyocera, cooler looking GSM goodies like the MOTOFONE have been generating just a bit more buzz. No worries, though; a handful of scrappy Korean startups are looking to correct the imbalance, committing to deliver $30 handsets utilizing CDMA2000 1x radios (no EV-DO, we're guessing) to India starting in December of this year with other Southeast Asian countries hopping on the bandwagon in '07. According to Rose Telecom, one of the startups involved in the initiative, the phones should take another dive to the $20 mark in 2008. We can almost sense American prepaid MVNOs expressing interest already.

Update: A resourceful reader has pointed out that Motorola's also offering a CDMA variant of the MOTOFONE, which clearly raises the bar for style in the CDMA emerging markets segment. The Korean folks still look to have a slight edge on pricing here -- but with Motorola having suggested that we'll be seeing $15 handsets by '08, they may not for long. [Thanks, Rich]

In a move that has to have the MOTOFONE's product manager grinning from ear to ear, it seems Samsung has decided that the fight for India's low- and ultra-low-end market isn't worth fighting anymore. If Telecom Korea's unnamed sources are to be trusted, the increasing introduction of smartphones to the country (combined with ever-increasing demand for them) is apparently pushing prices on basic handsets down to the point where the Korean company is ready to take its ball and go home. Don't worry, though, India; Samsung's not leaving you -- not by a long shot. Besides the recent introduction of the SGH-P310 credit card phone there, the company apparently intends to continue launching "color and camera phones" to satisfy Indians' rising demand for upscale products.

[Via Mobile Magazine]

It took a good while, but Nokia's bottom-of-the-barrel 6030 candybar has finally found its way onto T-Mobile. We don't have much to say about the simple handset; T-Mobile's offering it on contract for a big, round goose egg, but by modern standards, we almost feel like "free" is too much to pay for a phone whose banner feature is its speakerphone. Now, if you'll excuse us, we need to go back to staring in awe at the N95's spec sheet.

[Thanks, Steve T.]

Handset announcements from the floor of this fall's CTIA have come surprisingly few and far between, but Kyocera took the opportunity to show off two new entry-level handsets targeted primarily at international CDMA markets. The K132 clamshell is the "premium" device of the two -- and we use that term very loosely here -- featuring a color display, speakerphone, support for the 800 and 1900MHz bands, and a "soft touch" finish. The bare bones K122 strips away virtually every nonessential feature, leaving a basic, single-band candybar with a grayscale display. In this whole emerging markets game, we'd take a MOTOFONE any day over the K122, though we suspect the latter will find its way into consumer's hands sooner; expect both the K122 and its K132 sibling to drop before winter sets in.

Want Virgin Mobile service? Got 30 bucks? Kyocera's got you covered. The 3.5oz back-to-basics Oystr -- no "e" -- offers a color internal display, speakerphone, "Superphonic" ringtones, and that's about it. Some of us might be quickly overcome with a bad case of feature starvation, but at least the pearl white clamshell (hence the name) doesn't look half bad -- and for an honest $30 with no contract, we'll forego the typical grousing about the lack of external display.

[Thanks, Roy]

Moto sure is giving its iDEN-only product line a healthy sendoff before CDMA hybrid handsets start to drop later this year. Besides the upcoming high-end i880 and the virtually indestructible (we'll eat those words, we're sure) i580, Nextel looks to shore up their low end by adding the i670, a basic clamshell whose main selling point appears to be its "color display." Of course, no-frills is a big selling point among some Nextel clientele, so the phone should find its niche. Other features include Direct Talk (off-network walkie talkie) support, speakerphone, and a reasonable $49.99 price tag on two-year contract.

[Via phoneArena]

There are definitely LGs we'd rather see appear in Cingular's shipping lineup, but hey, the quad-band CG225 is free on contract after online rebate, has a VGA camera, dual color displays, and a speakerphone. The stub antenna is unfortunate, but all told the little clamshell doesn't look half bad -- and it's hard to complain about the price. Cheap backup phone, anyone?

[Via MobileTracker]

Update: Several readers have pointed out that the CG225's external display is not actually color, but rather black and white with a deceptive colored background. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Looks like Moto's slipped us another couple of low end phones (and a new brand) this week at CommunicAsia, the W220 (which we've already seen), and the W210 -- the CDMA and GSM versions of the same device, so far as we can tell. Much like the W170, W208, and W375 we saw announced this week, these two should also have about two weeks of standby time and an FM radio. More interesting than the phones, however, is the new brand they're rolling out in conjunction with them: MOTOMOBILE (say, shouldn't that be MOTOMOBL?). Aimed at "connecting the next billion" -- referring, of course, to the 2 billion mark just reached by GSM phones -- we can surely expect to see hordes of cheapy, low-margin MOTOMOBL phones in the future.

[Via RCR]