Looks like Nokia wants everyone to have a touchscreen phone. And this could be possible within a year or two, thanks to the low-cost touchscreen phones being announced.

Nokia yesterday announced another touchscreen phone for budget conscious people, the Nokia 5230, apparently a downgrade of the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic.

The two main differences I see between 5800 and 5230 are: no WiFi, less memory and a smaller camera with fixed-focus. Remaining is all Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, but with lots of improvements.

Nokia 5230 is an entertainment device featuring cutting-edge technology in an eye-catching design and is powered by Symbian S60 5th Edition, the OS that also powers Nokia’s other touchscreen phones.

Features of Nokia 5230

• 3.2-inch touchscreen display (640 x 360 pixels resolution)
• 2 Megapixels camera with fixed focus
• Video recording at 640 x 480 pixels at up to 30 fps
• A-GPS navigation with Ovi Maps 3.0 application
• Custom homescreen with Contacts Bar.
• 33 hours music playback time
• Access to Ovi Store and other social networking sites

This smartphone will be released in with a competitive price of  approximately 150 EUR ($215) by the end of this year. At this affordable price, the Nokia 5230 is an open threat to other low-budget touchscreen phones like Samsung Star, LG Cookie etc. A variation of the same phone will also be released featuring Comes With Music service and that will cost for 260 EUR ($370).