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Last updated: Thursday, November 6, 2008

Nokia executives have long maintained that customers in emerging markets will get on the Internet primarily through their mobile phones. On Nov. 4 the company announced a series of new devices and services designed to prove the assertion by extending the benefits of the Web to rural Indians, including crop information for farmers and mobile e-mail for people who don’t have access to a personal computer. The Finnish handset maker helped pioneer the industry’s drive into emerging markets with rugged, low-cost mobile phones, turning China and India into its biggest markets. The new devices include Nokia’s lowest-cost handset to date, called the 1202, which will sell for about $32. But what could be most world-changing are new low-cost phones that include Web browsers and e-mail capability. For as little as $50, the 2320 Classic and 2323 Classic, which go on sale next year, will allow users to set up e-mail accounts directly from their mobile phones. Nokia already sells low-cost handsets that can access e-mail. But the new devices will allow users to set up an e-mail account on Nokia’s Ovi Web portal without ever going near a PC. That’s an important distinction for the millions of mobile-phone users who live in regions without reliable electricity, much less computers and Internet connections. “It gives those millions of users their first identity on the Internet,” says Alex Lambeek, Nokia vice-president in charge of handsets aimed at low-income users. Leaping Ahead of Tech Rivals If successful, the strategy also could give Nokia a long-term advantage over other big tech companies as emerging markets join the Information Age. “If your first e-mail address is Ovi.com, that’s a way into the digital world where Nokia is going to take you rather than Yahoo! or Google,” says Carolina Milanesi, an analyst at market researcher Gartner. In addition, Nokia aims to…

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Nokia Brings the Web to Emerging Markets

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