GLOBAL – Ovi Mail, the email service that comes with your Nokia phone, has announced that it now has 10 million activated accounts.
Typical readers of Conversations perhaps already have more email accounts than they know what to do with, and perhaps even wish that some of them would go away. But, if that’s the case, you’re in the minority when it comes to the big picture. Only 25 per cent of the world currently has access to email. So what does everyone else do?
We’re glad you asked.
Mobile phones are fast becoming the default Internet access device for most of the world. Take India, for example: 1.13 billion people; less than 50 million PCs (that’s one computer for every 20-odd people), but there are more than 600 million mobile phone subscribers. Mobile is already the default mass media and communications channel. It’s where most people will send and receive emails. These are the people for whom Ovi Mail is particularly useful.
This is clearly shown when you look at the statistics of who is using Ovi Mail the most. Seven of the top ten countries activating Ovi Mail accounts are in emerging markets. Indonesia, Vietnam, India, Bangladesh, China, Kenya and Nigeria are among the top countries for activations.
The service is free, which helps a lot, but more importantly for these markets, you don’t need access to a PC to create or use it. You can do everything with Ovi Mail directly on your phone. The service is supported on nearly 200 device models worldwide – including all the Cseries handsets released last week – and is localised in 26 languages.
Nokia predicts that its recently announced alliance with Yahoo! regarding messaging and maps will strengthen brand recognition for the service and take advantage of its global distribution advantages.
In the video, Meenakshi Tripathy, from Nokia Services, comments on the significance of the service and the 10-million milestone.