In 2009 there were 28 mobile handset sellers in India and smaller players, according IDC data, who have raised their market share to 12 per cent in 2009 from only three per cent a year ago. As cheap imports of branded mobiles from China are flooding the market, Nokia with more than half the market under its fold had to rework its sales strategy. Its new emphasis on mobile email is one such move.
As a part of its email solutions offering, Nokia India now enables young professionals to remain connected with their social lives using Nokia Messaging, a tool to push emails into handsets. It has even started a massive advertisement campaign for its new model Nokia E63, available at Rs 10,599, aimed at young professionals with a host of enterprise and personal solutions.
Wide range of apps
Talking to Deccan Herald, Nokia Head —Activation, Media & Online Marketing, Viral Oza said “We believe email has become a standard part of the mobile experience for almost all types of consumers. So we have decided to offer easy and attractive solutions to mobile email needs of the entire market.”
Using Nokia Messaging one can read, respond, forward, compose and delete emails effortlessly from Nokia handset and also manage email inbox, outbox, drafts and sent folders. A user will have to subscribe to a data plan from the service operator to use the email service. One can configure a total of 10 email IDs such as Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, etc.
One can also get office mails from office Outlook Exchange server, pointed out Oza. Nokia Messaging also ensures easy toggling from one email account to another without having to go through the web browser. It is supported on more than 35 device models and has over 2 million active users in more than 100 countries today, explained Oza.
In India Nokia Messaging was initially made available to E and N series handsets costing about Rs 9,000 and above. To widen the market the company is now making it compatible to work with mobiles costing as low as Rs 5,000.
Nokia also believes that in India there are many users who will have their first email account on mobiles rather than on computers. To facilitate the spread of email usage to such users the company has created Ovi Mail account which can be created directly on the mobile phone.
For first time email users, Ovi Mail provides an internet identity, as well as cross access to other Ovi services. Currently, Ovi Mail is available across 100 devices in 180 countries in 20 languages, Oza said.
