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FINNISH PHONE FIRM Nokia has announced it has sold 1.5 billion of its Series 40 mobile phones.

The company said it is one of the most important milestones in its history. The landmark phone in question is an Asha 303, purchased by Mayara Rodrigues in Brazil.

Mary McDowell, EVP for mobile phones at Nokia said, “We are incredibly proud to reach this milestone. Having 1.5 billion Series 40 devices sold is a hard-to-reach mark, let alone one attainable in a single line of products.”

The first phone to run the Basic Series 40 operating system was the Nokia 7110 way back in 1999. The firm has stuck with it ever since, despite going down the route of Symbian, Meego and Windows Phone.

Nokia claims its development over the years means that it now blurs the line between feature phones and smartphones. Phones like the Asha 303 can do smartphone type things like play Angry Birds, browse the web, and use social networks.

Nokia has sold an estimated 1.3 million units of its most recent handset, the Windows Phone 7.5 Lumia 800, since last November.

“At a time when we are maintaining our commitment to connecting the next billion customers around the world – it is gratifying to consider how Series 40 devices have made mobile technology accessible and help continue to change people’s lives for the better,” added McDowell. µ

LIMBO, the haunting indie platformer that netted a slew of awards for its minimalist design, has sold over a million copies, announced the developer Playdead. The success has allowed Playdead to achieve full financial independence from early investors, and it’s also motivated them to bring LIMBO to Mac.

"With the success that LIMBO has achieved, we felt this was the ideal time to fully regain our independence,” said Dino Patti in a statement released yesterday. “We are grateful to everyone who supported us over the past few years, and look forward to forging new partnerships that will both let us reach new heights as a studio and give our director, Arnt Jensen, room to grow creatively.”

LIMBO, originally released on Xbox Live Arcade, has since been released on PlayStation Network and PC via Steam. It is likely that the Mac version will use Steam, as well. There's no release date yet, but Playdead claims it “will be released before the end of the year.”

Despite its brevity, I think LIMBO is a brilliant title that makes excellent use of purposefully limited resources. If you want to see what all the fuss is about, you can download a demo of LIMBO for PC right here or on your console of choice.

ONLINE BOOKSELLER Amazon is selling its latest Kindle ebook reader at an estimated loss of .25 per unit, ensuring it beats the competition by offering the lowest priced ebook device on the market.

The latest Kindle costs just , making it Amazon’s lowest priced e-reader to date. In fact, it’s so cheap that it’s priced less than the roughly .25 it costs to make, according to a report by research firm IHS Isuppli given exlusively to Mainstreet.

Isuppli broke down the bill-of-materials costs as .50 for the display module, .37 for the main printed circuit board (PCB), .08 for enclosures and final assembly, .06 for box contents, and .59 for miscellaneous interface PCBs. That brings the material cost to .59. Adding manufacturing cost of .66 bumps the price to .25, giving Amazon a small loss of .25 on every Kindle sold.

This might sound like madness at first, but Amazon makes up the money in other ways. For each Kindle, it can almost be guaranteed to sell some ebooks and digital magazines, on which it earns a sizable 30 per cent.

It will mainly make money from advertising, however, as this device comes with ads on its home and lock screens, part of Amazon’s “Special Offers” approach that allows for a significant discount on a device if users will accept a bit of advertising thrown in.

If users don’t want the advertising the new Kindle costs 9, giving Amazon close to in profit per unit. Amazon is taking a similar approach with its other Kindle offerings, with the Kindle Touch, due on 21 November, selling for ad supported or 9 non-ad supported. The 3G version of the Kindle Touch will sell for 9 or 9, respectively.

Amazon is also suffering a loss on its upcoming Kindle Fire tablet, which Isuppli costed out at just over 9 last month. Amazon is selling it for 9, losing around per unit. The difference for the Kindle Fire is that it won’t be ad supported, so Amazon is relying on making up the difference through selling its other products.

Amazon’s aggressive pricing, particularly with the Kindle Fire, could have a significant effect on the tablet market, which is dominated by expensive devices like Apple’s Ipad 2 and Samsung’s Galaxy Tab. While these companies might be reluctant to take a loss on these products to generate sales, they likely will be forced to cut their prices to remain competitive against Amazon. µ

Nick Farrell THE INQUIRER

That is a lot for an Apple gadget