Evangelizing Mobile Usage In Rural India

Nokia is evangelizing mobile usage in rural India – two dozen vans are on six month long tours of rural India, reports IHT. Representatives perform skits and explain to farmers how mobile phones can help them (apart from recommending Nokia), and offering branded merchandise as prizes. Battery life seems to be critical among users, and availability of FM is important. There seems to be an inordinate slant in the story: it appears to put forth an opinion that the price of phones doesn’t seem to be too important a criterion for rural consumers: one person mentioned has bought his sixth phone in two years, and Carolina Milanesi, research director at Gartner’s mobile device group, says that users even pay 50-60 USD for phones. Well, that’s just one side of the story, in my opinion. There are those who would choose to spend whatever little money they have on food, and they too are a part of the potential market of 770 million rural users that reports like these mention so often.

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