Phone calls, text messages, mini-games, a small square screen, and a 35-day standby feature - when a phone that looked and functioned almost exactly like a feature phone from ten years ago appeared at Nokia's new product launch, it seemed to instantly transport people back to the heyday of Nokia’s feature phones.At this time, Samsung and HTC were busy creating momentum for their large-screen smartphones to compete with Apple. However, Nokia had its eyes on the nearly forgotten feature phone market, launching an affordable model priced at 162 yuan called the 1050.Nokia seemed to have taken a step in the opposite direction. Was it the once glorious feature phone that made Nokia too nostalgic, or was it hoping to make a comeback in the homogenized smartphone red ocean through an inexpensive feature phone?Can it break out by leveraging feature phones?This feature phone, priced under 200 yuan, first appeared at the 2013 MWC (Barcelona Communication Exhibition) in February. At the time, several mid-to-low-end smartphones launched simultaneously by Nokia did not attract much attention from the outside world. However, this low-end feature phone, priced at only 15 euros, became the focus of media attention.This move sparked many speculations: Was Nokia trying to replicate the past glory of the Nokia 1110 with the 1050? A survey conducted abroad at the beginning of the year showed that the best-selling phone in history was the Nokia 1110, which has sold 250 million units since its launch in 2005, more than the total sales volume of all five generations of iPhones combined.However, the fact remains that feature phones yield low profits, and even many counterfeit manufacturers have shifted to the smartphone sector. Given Nokia's ongoing struggles in the smartphone arena, would going to another extreme in the feature phone market be viable?Nokia seems to think so. Wang Jun, Director of Platform and Technology Research and Development at Nokia, told reporters yesterday that despite the rapid growth of mobile users in China, there are still 200 million people without a phone; among the 1.1 billion who own one, only 420 million use the internet via their phones. There is still considerable demand for feature phones in China and other emerging markets.In addition to the 200 million people without phones, Wang Jun stated that Nokia's target demographic for feature phones includes young people in cities who lack strong purchasing power but hope to experience some internet applications, as well as those who opt for backup phones due to the battery limitations of smartphones.Moreover, there are some special industries involved. For instance, yesterday Nokia gave a batch of Nokia 1050s to rural mail carriers in Rugao, Jiangsu.Regarding concerns about the profitability of feature phones, Nokia currently relies on economies of scale. Wang Jun explained that many companies that used to produce low-end phones in places like Shenzhen and Guangzhou have now switched to smart devices because feature phones are positioned at the lower end of the low-end phone spectrum, making survival difficult without significant scale. Additionally, given the faster trend towards smartphone adoption in China compared to other parts of the world, Nokia is also synchronously developing feature phones with intelligent experiences.In fact, although feature phones have relatively low absolute profits, their profit margins are comparable to those of smartphones. Wang Jun said optimistically.The fading smartphone marketThe feature phone market may look appealing, but Nokia must face the reality that with the popularization of smartphones, overall feature phone sales will continue to decline. This issue has already surfaced in financial reports; in the first quarter of this year, a 21% drop in feature phone sales caused Nokia's stock price to plummet by 11%.Wang Jun also told reporters that greater pressure comes from low-end Android smartphones, whose prices are falling rapidly. Nokia needs to reduce costs through technology to remain competitive.Especially when competitors are all vying in the smart device field, Nokia's approach still seems somewhat unconventional to outsiders.Some commentators speculated that the brilliance of the feature phone era left a deep impression on Nokia, which might be a result of inertia. Previously, when Nokia announced a shift in business focus, apart from concentrating on its core Lumia series of smartphones, increasing investment and cooperation with Microsoft's operating system, and expanding into new areas such as maps and navigation services to differentiate itself from competitors, another key strategy was to increase the market share of feature phones.However, regarding Nokia's low-cost feature phone strategy, Zhang Yi, CEO of iResearch Consulting Group, expressed approval, believing that Nokia's approach appears to have targeted the right market. Especially in China, with its 1.1 billion mobile phone users, this phone is more likely to be used as a backup. The reason lies in its long standby time, which makes it highly attractive as a backup phone amidst the heavy power consumption of various smartphones.Theoretically speaking, dealers have lost interest in feature phones, but market response will determine otherwise. As long as users are interested, dealers will definitely be interested too, forming a reverse push effect. Zhang Yi said.However, outside the feature phone market, if Nokia cannot achieve a breakthrough in the more mainstream smartphone sector, investors' evaluations of it may still need to be further adjusted downward.Nokia's performance in the first quarter of this year was less than ideal. Net revenue amounted to 5.85 billion euros (approximately 7.6 billion USD), down 20.4% year-on-year. The net loss was 150 million euros (approximately 196 million USD), compared to a net loss of 929 million euros (approximately 1.2 billion USD) during the same period last year, representing a narrowing of 78.4%. Among these, sales of Lumia smartphones based on Microsoft's Windows Phone operating system grew by 27% year-on-year. However, they accounted for a very small proportion of Nokia's total smartphone sales of 61.9 million units in the first quarter, with only 5.6 million units sold.Similarly, at yesterday's press conference, reporters noticed that many executives from Nokia's partner, China Post, were holding Samsung phones.So I would suggest they use a 1050 as a backup. Wang Jun told reporters.