Mobile phone handset maker Nokia has launched its Ovi mail offering in East Africa – the service is available to users in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania.
The launch in East Africa is part of a global launch in all markets “but especially the emerging markets.”
Ovi Mail is an email identity that Nokia has primarily developed for first-time email users.
The offering will especially be popular with users in developing markets where people do not have an email account or have difficulty accessing a PC, which is usually required to create an email account.
“Ovi Mail gives such users the opportunity to create an email account directly on their devices and start communicating with their family and friends,” Dorothy Ooko, the communications manager for Nokia in Eastern and Southern Africa said via email.
In more developed markets where users have email accounts and find it easier to access PCs, Ooko said Ovi Mail gives them the opportunity to create a new email account that will also give them contextuality, as well as cross access to other Ovi services.
Ovi Mail enables Nokia mobile device users to create and use email accounts (username@ovi.com) directly on their mobile phone.
Last week, Nokia launched the offering in Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania and already the response from users has been good.
“We have received mail from consumers telling us how this has transformed how they do business,” Ooko said.
“The most memorable was a woman in Kajiado, Kenya who said she no longer has to travel to a cyber cafe for mail as she can communicate directly with many of her clients.”
Ovi Mail was developed for first-time email users and advanced Email users – the primary targets being users in developing/emerging markets who do not have a pre-existing email account, or who have little or no access to a PC.
The secondary target base according to Ooko includes users who have other email accounts but would like to create another secondary email account that is designed for mobile use.
Ooko said the service so far has local language support for 11 languages with future plans to support over 80 languages.
Ovi Mail can be set up and accessed directly on users’ service-optimized Nokia Series 40 devices.
The service provides the mobile client interface and mobile service that enables users to access their pre-existing email accounts from over 1000 ISPs (including Gmail and Yahoo mail) around the world on their mobile device.
Ooko said the key drivers for a new email account for those who already have web Email include the ease of setup, ease of access, and also the number of access points.
“We are giving users the opportunity to easily create a new email account for themselves, directly on their devices without needing to use a PC first, so that they too can stay connected,” Ooko said.
“While they may use their web-based Ovi Mail accounts to send and receive files (playlists, images, videos, etc.), we don’t expect them to exceed 1GB of web storage space each.”
The Ovi service is available on the new Series 40 devices that Nokia launched this year.
Ooko however was quick to add that there are currently 36 Series 40 device models that are optimized for Ovi Mail.
Ooko said the market need and opportunity for mobile provisioning of new Web-based email accounts lies in developing markets where the Nokia Series 40 devices are extremely popular. It is expected that the same capability will be introduced for Nokia Series 60 devices over time.
Ovi Mail is Web mail, and like all Internet services, mobile access requires a data tariff.
What Nokia has done is it has removed the barrier for users to set-up and start using Ovi Mail on their devices for free.
“However, users will be charged by the local operators based on the amount of data used to send and receive emails,” Ooko said.
To access Ovi Mail, a user simply needs to go to the email setup wizard on their Nokia Series 40 device or Nokia S60 device such as the Nokia N97. Ovi Mail is also available on the web at https://mail.ovi.com/.
Over one million Ovi mail accounts have been activated over the past six months elsewhere the service was introduced.
The top five countries for Ovi Mail subscribers are India, Indonesia, Mexico, Russia and South Africa. Since its inception in December 2008, Ovi Mail is available in more than 180 countries and supports 20 languages.
The launch in East Africa is part of a global launch in all markets “but especially the emerging markets.”
Ovi Mail is an email identity that Nokia has primarily developed for first-time email users.
The offering will especially be popular with users in developing markets where people do not have an email account or have difficulty accessing a PC, which is usually required to create an email account.
“Ovi Mail gives such users the opportunity to create an email account directly on their devices and start communicating with their family and friends,” Dorothy Ooko, the communications manager for Nokia in Eastern and Southern Africa said via email.
In more developed markets where users have email accounts and find it easier to access PCs, Ooko said Ovi Mail gives them the opportunity to create a new email account that will also give them contextuality, as well as cross access to other Ovi services.
Ovi Mail enables Nokia mobile device users to create and use email accounts (username@ovi.com) directly on their mobile phone.
Last week, Nokia launched the offering in Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania and already the response from users has been good.
“We have received mail from consumers telling us how this has transformed how they do business,” Ooko said.
“The most memorable was a woman in Kajiado, Kenya who said she no longer has to travel to a cyber cafe for mail as she can communicate directly with many of her clients.”
Ovi Mail was developed for first-time email users and advanced Email users – the primary targets being users in developing/emerging markets who do not have a pre-existing email account, or who have little or no access to a PC.
The secondary target base according to Ooko includes users who have other email accounts but would like to create another secondary email account that is designed for mobile use.
Ooko said the service so far has local language support for 11 languages with future plans to support over 80 languages.
Ovi Mail can be set up and accessed directly on users’ service-optimized Nokia Series 40 devices.
The service provides the mobile client interface and mobile service that enables users to access their pre-existing email accounts from over 1000 ISPs (including Gmail and Yahoo mail) around the world on their mobile device.
Ooko said the key drivers for a new email account for those who already have web Email include the ease of setup, ease of access, and also the number of access points.
“We are giving users the opportunity to easily create a new email account for themselves, directly on their devices without needing to use a PC first, so that they too can stay connected,” Ooko said.
“While they may use their web-based Ovi Mail accounts to send and receive files (playlists, images, videos, etc.), we don’t expect them to exceed 1GB of web storage space each.”
The Ovi service is available on the new Series 40 devices that Nokia launched this year.
Ooko however was quick to add that there are currently 36 Series 40 device models that are optimized for Ovi Mail.
Ooko said the market need and opportunity for mobile provisioning of new Web-based email accounts lies in developing markets where the Nokia Series 40 devices are extremely popular. It is expected that the same capability will be introduced for Nokia Series 60 devices over time.
Ovi Mail is Web mail, and like all Internet services, mobile access requires a data tariff.
What Nokia has done is it has removed the barrier for users to set-up and start using Ovi Mail on their devices for free.
“However, users will be charged by the local operators based on the amount of data used to send and receive emails,” Ooko said.
To access Ovi Mail, a user simply needs to go to the email setup wizard on their Nokia Series 40 device or Nokia S60 device such as the Nokia N97. Ovi Mail is also available on the web at https://mail.ovi.com/.
Over one million Ovi mail accounts have been activated over the past six months elsewhere the service was introduced.
The top five countries for Ovi Mail subscribers are India, Indonesia, Mexico, Russia and South Africa. Since its inception in December 2008, Ovi Mail is available in more than 180 countries and supports 20 languages.
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