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— Kamal Narang

Rural focus: Mr Robert Andersson, Executive Vice-President, Devices, with Mr D. Shivakumar, Managing Director, Nokia India, at the launch of new handsets in the Capital on Tuesday.

Our Bureau

New Delhi, Nov. 4 In an effort to increase mobile usage in rural areas, Nokia on Tuesday said it is beefing up its emerging markets strategy as it unveiled several handsets and a range of services targeted initially at India.

As part of the initiative, Nokia launched its lowest cost handset to date at €25 (around Rs 1,540), as well as a range of agriculture information and education services called Nokia Life Tools.

Estimated retail prices of the new devices range from €25 to €90, with several models expected to begin shipping in 2008. Nokia’s suite of Internet services for emerging markets will be available in 2009.

“In 2002, Nokia unveiled a strategy to lower the cost of owning and operating a mobile phone and to bring the benefits of mobile telephony to people in emerging markets. Today, we are expanding that vision by introducing a number of devices and services that aim to bring the power of the Internet to these markets as well,” said Mr Robert Andersson, Executive Vice-President, Devices, Nokia.

The services being introduced by Nokia includes the Mail on Ovi, which offers the possibility to create an email account directly on the mobile phone without having to use a personal computer. Nokia will launch this service in a few select markets by this month-end.

Nokia Life Tools will provide farmers and students with relevant information through SMS. These services use an icon-based user interface, which can display information simultaneously in two languages.

“SMS is used to deliver the critical information to ensure that this service works wherever a mobile phone does, without the hassles of additional settings or the need for GPRS coverage,” said Mr Jawahar Kanjilal, Global Head of Emerging Market Devices Services & Software, Nokia Corporation.

Mr Kanjilal said Life Tools is aimed at helping farmers to get local information on seeds, crops, markets and weather. He expects full commercial service across India in the first half of 2009, with expansions to countries in Asia and Africa later. There will also be a service that sends subscribers an English word each day, explaining how it’s pronounced and what it means in the user’s native language. Each of these packages could cost between Rs 25 and Rs 50 a month.

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