Many of the Nokia global bosses were here in New Delhi. For one they had come to flag off the Nokia Express, a train with bogies painted in Nokia blue. It carries many low-cost handsets. The idea is to hook the bogies to various trains. In the process, people across India can get to see, feel and experience a Nokia phone. But, with some technical problem with the train, it could not be formally flagged off.
But, they did bring in the media and analysts from across Asia Pac. Nokia launched seven new low cost phones, six GSM and one CDMA. All are priced between Euro 35-85 (Rs 1,950-4,675. But then that is not necessarily low-cost. That's because Reliance Communications has just announced a SIM-based phone at Rs 777 ($19). Now that's real cheap.
Also many of the new phones have Internet access. Almost all off them have FM radio, flashlights, colour screen etc. Nokia's logic is that people in small towns in emerging markets are now looking at value for money and brands. That's why they will prefer Nokia phones.
With 3 billion people expected to have a mobile phone by 2007-end, up from 2 billion in September 2005, it remains to be seen how many will be using a Nokia.
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