Nokia Targets Emerging Markets With Internet Services And New Handsets
Nokia (NYSE: NOK) is targeting emerging markets with seven new handsets and some interesting internet applications, with India the first country to get them. The internet services include email through its mobile portal Ovi (Mail on Ovi), and its SMS application for agricultural information and education, or what it calls Nokia Life Tools. Life Tools is being tested in India before the year’s end.
Reuters Market Light (RML) will provide content for its agricultural service, which will include weather, prices, availability of seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, and current market prices for the produce. The information is customized to the farmer’s location and selection of crops. EnableM will provide the content for its education services—including language lessons and vocabulary and general information quizzes to start with, while OnMobile will provide the tools’ “fun element”, with astrology services and ringtone downloads among others. The phones, which include a music one, are priced from 25 to 90 euros (RS 1,538-7,078) and will begin shipping this year, while the internet services will roll out in the first half of 2009 in India, then in Asia and Africa.
It will be interesting to watch how the agricultural services in particular fare. Unlike a lot of content, and especially so in developed countries where much of it is entertainment, the customized farming updates can really be called a tool, and could make a difference to a livelihood. Reuters claims its mobile news services has already helped Maharashtra farmers make an extra profit of Rs 100,000. For Nokia, which sees itself moving away from being a handset maker to an internet services provider, emerging markets may provide more fertile ground, especially as it faces much more established competition for its web services in developed markets. (Release).
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