Nokia unveils 3 phones @ Soweto

... Says no plant for Nigeria yet
By Remmy Nweke, just back from SA

[Caption: L-R, Senior Vice President, Customer and Market Operations, Mr. Timo Toikkanen, Director Strategy and Business Development for New Markets, Mr. Petteri Terho with Ms Tania Steenkamp Communications Manager all of Nokia at the event.]

Leading phone manufacturer, Nokia, has unveiled three Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) phones, at the South-Western Township, otherwise known as Soweto in South Africa.

This came as Nokia said it has no immediate future plan to establish a manufacturing plant on the continent, let alone Nigeria, where it sold estimated 1 billion mobile phones as at last September.

The three new mobile phones unveiled included Nokia 26010, 2310 and 1112 respectively, which the telco said would boost its penetration of the African markets.

Described as the 2006 Nokia Experience Mobility show, the event heralded the introduction of three level mobile phones for first time users.

These new phones to be made available in the market by next month, June, would sell between $55 and $90, that is, about N7,061 and N11,554

Senior Vice President, Customer and Market Operations for Middle East and Africa (MEA) at Nokia, Mr. Timo Toikkanen, the launch was in the bid to expand Nokia’s market presence on the continent, even as the three new entrants are within the easy-to-use, reliable and affordable mobile phones categories.

Nokia 2610 phone, he said, offers an iconic design and a strong range of features for business-minded consumers, via its electronic mail (e-mail) support as well as mobile Internet access through a Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) browser.

In addition, Nokia 2610, supports Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS), Nokia Xpress Audio Messaging, recording and editing messages on the go, to name a few.

Nokia 2310, the senior vice president, who was accompanied by Director, Strategy and Business Development at Nokia Networks, Mr. Petteri Terho, and Vice President Sales and Market Operations for MEA, Mr. Tomi Paatsila, said it’s for those with a mind for fashion and music.

With dedicated short-cut key for the in-built FM radio, Nokia 2310 also comes with the “sound visualization” features, which include graphics that move in sync with the music, thus keeping in tune with consumer desires, while offering polyphonic and Media Player (MP3)-grade ring tones.

For the Nokia 1112 phone, Mr. Toikkanen pointed out that it’s manufactured with special emphasis on ease-of-use, availing users to interface by making use of graphical icons and large font sizes to make user navigation simple for first-time mobile phone users.

Timekeeping is another made convenient with the speaking clock and alarm, which announces the time in a range of local languages.

It would be recalled that fortnight ago, Nokia also launched another three sets of mobile phones in its Nokia Nseries in Berlin and Hong Kong respectively.