Inform, Involve, Empower - Nokia's service mant...
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Timely and relevant information for smaller towns and rural areas
directly to mobile phones
New Delhi, India - Nokia today announced that it plans to launch
Nokia Life Tools, a range of innovative Agriculture information and
Education services targeted to non-urban consumers. Designed
specifically for emerging markets, Nokia Life Tools helps overcome
information constraints and provides services to this next generation
of mobile users. Nokia plans to launch the service, beginning in the
first half of 2009 with the Nokia 2323 classic and the Nokia 2330
classic as the lead devices in India and expand across select
countries in Asia and Africa later in 2009.
"Filling in the information gaps in agriculture and education with
Nokia Life Tools, we strive to contribute towards empowering people
with the right tools to help them make informed decisions in their
daily lives," said Jawahar Kanjilal, Global Head of Emerging Market
Services, Nokia. "Nokia Life Tools was developed to help bridge the
digital divide in the emerging markets."
"Nokia is a global innovator with a strong pulse of local markets.
Agriculture employs more than 60 percent of all workforce in India.
This sector of the economy needs fresh inputs via technology for the
sector to get to a 3 percent growth," said Shiv Shivakumar, Vice
President, Nokia India. "Education and English language, on the other
hand, are springboards for a number of small town and rural youth to
move into the employment market. Nokia, through services in
Agriculture and Education, will fulfil these opportunities for the
Indian population."
Nokia plans to conduct a limited scale pilot in India before the end
of 2008. Reuters Market Light (RML) is the content service provider
collaborating with Nokia for agriculture services in the pilot, where
accurate and regular information on weather, prices and availability
of seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, and prevailing market prices for
the produce are sent to the farmer. The information is customized to
the farmer's location and selection of crops, and will be delivered
directly to his Nokia mobile phone. By getting the latest information
directly on their mobile phones, farmers can overcome uncertainty and
get just the right information that they need to grow and sell their
crops.
"Technology is changing the way farmers, their families and their
surrounding communities are contributing to the economy, as well as
benefiting from it. Reuters Market Light has already proven the value
of customized and localized information to the farming community,
with thousands of farmers having already made significant additional
profits using RML," said Amit Mehra, Managing Director, Reuters
Market Light. "Through our collaboration with Nokia, we hope to reach
even more farmers so that they can make informed decisions that have
a direct and positive impact on their productivity and yield."
The Education service of Nokia Life Tools aims to give students a
decisive advantage by boosting their English language and local,
national and international general knowledge. Language lessons,
quizzes on English words and phrases, and the general knowledge
information were designed - together with EnableM for the pilot - to
give students an edge. In future, the Education service will also
come with information on higher education and career guidance and
tips, exam preparation, quizzes and access to exam results.
Astrology services and ringtone downloads, with content from OnMobile
during the pilot phase, bring the fun element to Nokia Life Tools.
"Nokia Life Tools was developed in collaboration with the target
users and the industry. The success of this initiative can be assured
through regular consumer feedback to ensure that their needs are best
met. More importantly, it will require a collaborative effort between
Nokia, our operator partners, industry participants and information
providers across the agriculture and education sectors as we connect
the next billion mobile phone subscribers - many of whom will indeed
hail from these developing regions," added Mr Kanjilal.
Nokia Life Tools services use an icon-based, graphically rich user
interface that comes complete with tables and which can even display
information simultaneously in two languages. Behind this rich
interface, SMS is used to deliver the critical information to ensure
that this service works wherever a mobile phone works, without the
hassles of additional settings or the need for GPRS coverage.
Idea Cellular Limited is the first GSM operator in India to
collaborate on Nokia Life Tools. Pradeep Shrivastava, Chief Marketing
Officer, Idea Cellular Ltd says: "We at Idea, Aditya Birla Group have
made significant strides in rural markets and have taken initiatives
around rural telephony. We are delighted to collaborate with Nokia in
this new service and enrich the life of the Indian rural consumer
through these service-enabled handsets."
Nokia Life Tools will be available in local languages for the target
audience. The pilot will be enabled on the Nokia 2600 classic and the
Nokia 1680, and available in Marathi, Hindi and English.
More information and photos in print quality can be found at
www.nokia.com/press/entry.
About Nokia
Nokia is the world leader in mobility, driving the transformation and
growth of the converging Internet and communications industries. We
make a wide range of mobile devices with services and software that
enable people to experience music, navigation, video, television,
imaging, games, business mobility and more. Developing and growing
our offering of consumer Internet services, as well as our enterprise
solutions and software, is a key area of focus. We also provide
equipment, solutions and services for communications networks through
Nokia Siemens Networks.
Media Enquiries:
Nokia
Communications
Tel. +358 7180 34900
Email: press.services@nokia.com
www.nokia.com
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