After tying up with Tata DoCoMo, Nokia has now joined hands with Reliance Communications to provide Nokia Ovi Life Tools to RCom subscribers in the rural areas of India. Nokia Ovi Life Tools provides information on agriculture, weather, education, entertainment and much more, which can be important in the progress of the rural parts of the country on the socio-economic front.
Nokia Benefits?
It has been well established that Nokia are losing a lot of market share in India. Though they still dominate the mobile market by a considerable amount, local competitors like Micromax, Lava, Spice, etc. have eaten into a considerable share of the market. In order to counter this, Nokia has focused its attention on rural India through some campaigns like giving away free phones in five villages. Through Ovi Life Tools and the distribution of free phones, Nokia’s plan could be to make Nokia a household name in rural India.
Whats in it for RCom?
RCom has seen their Net Income decrease by 84% in the last quarter, and the company has had to come up with new strategies to entice mobile subscribers. After tying up with GetJar, RCom teamed up with Universal Music to provide access to over 300,000 songs to RCom subscribers. Now by tying up with Nokia, RCom is trying to establish themselves in the network provider market in rural India.
How does India benefit?
No matter what the ulterior motives of the companies involved, such campaigns are ideal for rural idea to grow. With the information available to them through Ovi Life Tools, farmers can be more informed about the weather, children can be educated, and entertainment for all. Apart from this, such campaigns also emphasize that network providers have understood the importance of the rural market as opposed to before where most plans were customized as per urban or metropolitan neighbourhoods.
Such initiatives will only help India move forward more than anything else. What are your thoughts on this?
