The Hindu : Business : Nokia unveils new handsets

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Wednesday, Nov 05, 2008
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Nokia unveils new handsets

Special Correspondent

Plans to provide agriculture, education services through ‘Nokia Life Tools’

— PHOTO: ANU PUSHKARNA

INNOVATIVE SERVICE: D. Shivakumar (right), Managing Director, Nokia India, with Robert Andersson, Executive Vice-President launching the company’s innovative services and latest range of handsets in New Delhi on Tuesday.

NEW DELHI: Nokia on Tuesday introduced seven mobile handsets in the price range of 25 to 90 euro (about Rs. 1,500-Rs. 5,500) for the Indian market. The leading mobile handset-seller is also planning to launch ‘Nokia Life Tools’, a range of innovative agriculture information and education services targeted at non-urban customers.

“Designed specifically for the emerging markets, Nokia’s new handsets and tools will help overcome information constraints and provide services to mobile users. We plan to launch the ‘Nokia Life Tools’ services in mid-2009 with the Nokia 2300 series handsets as the lead devices,” Nokia’s Executive Vice President (Devices) Robert Andersson said at a press conference.

“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,” he added.

Informing that ‘Nokia Life Tools’ services, which will be subscription-based with focus on e-mail, agriculture and education, Mr. Andersson said it would help overcome information constraints and provide farmers and students with timely and relevant information. “We will launch the pilot project in Maharashtra by the year-end. The service will be available in Marathi, Hindi and English,” he added.

“Similarly, ‘Mail on Ovi’, which is enabled on Nokia series 40 devices, offers the possibility to create an e-mail account directly on the mobile phone. The global rollout of mail on Ovi has been planned for this year-end,” he added. Nokia India Vice-President and Managing Director D. Shivakumar said the range of new handsets would cater to the needs of a cross-section of users. These new feature-rich phones had been designed keeping in mind the needs of users in developing countries like India, he added.

Mr. Shivakumar also said the Finnish mobile giant might hike the prices of its products globally soon due to rising input costs. He, however, declined to disclose any timeline for the same.

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