Nokia targets Rural market and low cost Internet as part of India strategy

Nokia will unveil for India next year an Internet-browser enabled handset priced at around Rs. 2,500 as part of a strategy to sell low-priced models with value-added features. Nokia has also announced the launch of seven new entry-level devices priced around Rs. 1,550 to Rs. 6,000 before local taxes and a service called Lifetools targeted at small towns and villages. Nokia has also tied up with microfinance company SKS Microfinance that will allow users to pay as low as $1.9 or close to Rs 100 per week as an instalment for the handset. Nokia Lifetools has content partnership for agriculture with Reuters Market Light and with Onmobile for Astrology services and ringtone downloads and is an effort by Nokia to offer targeted VAS services to farmers in villages of India. According to Nokia

Life Tools is a range of innovative agriculture information ( seeds, crops, markets,weather ) and education services designed especially for rural and small town communities in emerging markets. 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.Nokia plans to conduct a limited scale pilot in India before the end of 2008 of Life tools.

Nokia is also offering Mail on Ovi, which is enabled on Nokia Series 40 devices, which offers the possibility to create an email account directly on the mobile phone without having to use a personal computer, giving millions of users the possibility to create their first internet identity and communicate in new ways. All these efforts seem to portray that Nokia is now seriously trying to bet on two things as part of its India strategy to drive its future growth - the low cost rural market and spreading of mobile internet in India ( via HT and release )
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