Nokia CEO: Mobility brings hope and higher livi...
NOKIA / Nokia CEO: Mobility brings hope and higher living standards to billions of people processed and transmitted by Hugin AS. The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
Las Vegas, NV, USA - Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo told attendees at the
International Consumer Electronics Show that the world's developing economies
are places of increasing opportunity and upward mobility, where wealth is being
created at an incredible rate and business opportunities abound - in part due to
the spread of mobile communications.
"Mobile communications have played a big role in bringing hope and higher living
standards to literally billions of people," Kallasvuo said during a keynote
speech Friday. "The trend promises to accelerate in the coming decade, as the
power and capabilities of smartphones spread across the globe."
Kallasvuo discussed how innovators, particularly software developers, can join
Nokia in its efforts to be a force for good by helping to accelerate development
in these growth markets. He announced the USD 1 million Nokia Growth Economy
Venture Challenge - a USD 1 million investment from Nokia to encourage
innovators and developers to come up with innovate ways to help people and
promote upward mobility around the world.
"We've seen what the tech community can do when it focuses on problems that are
also opportunities," Kallasvuo said. "We want to channel that energy toward
improving lives in the developing world."
Kallasvuo noted that there are about 4.6 billion mobile subscriptions among the
planet's 6.8 billion people today. "For the majority of the world's people,
their first and only access to the Internet will be through a mobile device -
not a PC. And this access is spreading very, very fast."
"In China, every month more than 7 million people gain access to the Internet
for the first time, and mostly on mobile devices," he said. "This trend shows no
signs of slowing. The mobile device has become a necessity for upward mobility."
Kallasvuo announced that Ovi Mail, Nokia's mobile email service that is designed
for users whose first email access is via a mobile device, signed up more than
5 million accounts in its first year, exceeding the first-year user totals for
Gmail, Yahoo Mail and Hotmail.
Kallasvuo spoke of the importance of understanding every market in which a
company does business.
"Business people often tend to lump all of the growing countries outside the
West into one category. They call them 'developing countries,' 'emerging
countries' or 'emerging markets.' Each of these markets is uniquely different
and complex. A one-size-fits-all approach just doesn't work."
Kallasvuo shared the CES stage with Jan Chipchase, whom he described as the
"Indiana Jones of Nokia." Chipchase travels the far corners of the world to help
Nokia understand how people live and how mobile phones might help them to live
better.
"People around the world have shown us that adversity leads to real innovation,"
said Chipchase. "People in some of the world's most remote and poorest countries
have inspired us and amazed us. They know what they need and they find ways to
make it happen."
After Chipchase, Kallasvuo introduced the "Progress Project" and Frances Linzee
Gordon, one of the Lonely Planet travel journalists who worked on it. For the
Progress Project, Nokia invited Lonely Planet to investigate the benefits of
mobility, giving complete editorial freedom to Lonely Planet's writers. What
resulted was a series of short videos that showed how lives are being improved
by mobility.
"My first misconception about this project, was that Progress was merely about
technology," Linzee Gordon said. "In fact, it was really all about people. How
people are using mobile devices to improve their health, wealth, business and
education. My second misconception? Before this project, like a lot of people, I
didn't appreciate the potential for a global company to be a force for good."
About Nokia
Nokia is a pioneer in mobile telecommunications and the world's leading maker of
mobile devices. Today, we are connecting people in new and different ways -
fusing advanced mobile technology with personalized services to enable people to
stay close to what matters to them. We also provide comprehensive digital map
information through NAVTEQ; and equipment, solutions and services for
communications networks through Nokia Siemens Networks.
Media Enquiries:
Nokia
Communications, America
Tel. +1 972 894 4573
Email: communication.corp@nokia.com
www.nokia.com <
http://www.nokia.com/>
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