With a view to bring new services and affordable handsets to users in rural areas, Nokia releases its Life Tools service and five new handsets in Indonesia. The Life Tools service enables users in rural areas and small towns to enjoy a wide variety of services on their mobile phones. The company also releases new user-friendly and reasonable handsets supporting Nokia Life Tools that will be available worldwide.
The company launches the Nokia 1280, Nokia 1616, Nokia 1800, Nokia 2690 and Nokia 2220 slide handsets that are feature-packed and easy-to-use. The Nokia 1280, Nokia 1616 and Nokia 1800 handsets come with FM radio, prepaid tracker, flashlight, anti-scratch cover and dust-resistant keymat. For users in rural areas where electricity is limited, these handsets deliver longer battery life with 22 days of standby time.
The Nokia 2220 slide and the Nokia 2690 offers email service via Ovi Mail, allowing users in developing market to receive their first digital identity directly from their mobile phones. Users can create Ovi Mail accounts easily allowing them to send and receive emails without the further need of a PC. These handsets also include FM radio, VGA camera, GPRS and MMS and Bluetooth. Its phonebook allows storage of almost 1,000 contacts. The Nokia 2220 slide supports standby time up to 20 days while the Nokia 2690 supports standby time up to 13 days.
“Following the successful launch of Nokia Life Tools in India, where people are getting the benefits of vital information sent directly to their mobile phones, we are pleased to bring this service to consumers in Indonesia,” said Dieter May, Vice President, Emerging Markets, Nokia. “Inform, Involve, Empower – the vision of Nokia Life Tools – applies no matter where it’s implemented. With the number of devices that Nokia Life Tools supports, including the five new phones we are announcing today, we are giving people the solution that suits them the most.”
The Nokia Life Tools service will be available from early December. Initially the Agriculture service will be available to Java and Sumatra islands and Education and Entertainment services will be available across the nation.
Nokia Life Tools services offer an icon-based user interface that comes with tables. These tables display information in two languages at the same time. Apart from the rich user interface, SMS is utilized to provide the vital information to assure that this service functions wherever a mobile phone works. This eliminates the hassles of additional settings or GPRS coverage.
Users can subscribe to information on Agriculture, Education and Entertainment content. Nokia is teaming up with the Ministry of Agriculture (Departemen Pertanian Republik Indonesia), the Center of Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics (BMKG), Synovate as well as other industry partners to provide relevant agriculture information, prices, news and tips to users.
Users can avail the Agriculture service for commodities like crops, livestock, horticulture and fisheries. Consumers can subscribe to up to three generally grown commodities in their area. Besides, the agriculture service also includes weather services, price services, agriculture news and tips.
The Education service incorporates Learn English, General Knowledge and Test Preparation. Learn English comes with three levels of proficiency and focuses on English language fundamentals. General Knowledge contains information related to respective regions along with the national and international levels. Test Preparation provides services for the Junior High School and Senior High School levels. The Entertainment service offers a variety of mobile entertainment content such as news, music, comics, jokes, astrology, movie news and reviews.
With this launch, users of Telkomsel, Indosat, XL and Hutch can subscribe to Nokia Life Tools Services. Initially this service will be available on Nokia 2323 classic, Nokia 2330 classic and Nokia 2700 classic handsets in Indonesia. Besides the 11 handsets that will be pre-installed with Nokia Life Tools, this service will be downloadable on other Nokia phones in future.
The Nokia 1280, Nokia 1616 and Nokia 1800 are retailed at EUR 20, EUR 24 and EUR 26 respectively (before taxes and subsidies). The Nokia 2220 slide is priced at EUR 45 while the Nokia 2690 at EUR 54 (before taxes and subsidies). The first of the five handsets are expected to hit markets before the end of 2009 and others are expected to release in the first half of 2010.