Nokia completes pilot phase Life Tools services

BANGALORE, INDIA: World's largest cellphone maker Nokia, announced on Wednesday that it has concluded the pilot phase of its pioneering Life Tools service in Maharashtra, India and the results show that subscribers are reaping the benefits.

Nokia Life Tools would launch commercially India-wide in the first half of 2009. The service would be enabled in the Nokia 2320 and Nokia 2323, which would soon begin shipping, and on more devices to be announced later in the year.

“The creation of Nokia Life Tools is from the ground up: it is built by a team that immersed itself in the rural conditions and did extensive research to understand how people led their lives, the kinds of services they were currently receiving, and what they wanted to see as changes or improvements,” said D Shivakumar, vice president and general manager, Nokia India.

Users of the agriculture service described that with Life Tools they were better informed about market rates for their produce, said a press release.

It also announced the availability of its gaming service, ‘N-Gage’ in India with additional games and an expanded online offering.

N-Gage is a part of Nokia’s Internet services brand Ovi and brings alive a made-for-mobile gaming service to provide consumers the power to tailor and personalize the Internet experience, said the release.

N-Gage initially brings a catalogue of 30 titles developed by global as well as Indian publishers such as EA Mobile, Gameloft, Glu Mobile and India Games, in addition to Nokia Games Publishing.

In a unique initiative for Indian consumers Nokia is also offering special pre-paid Oxigen e-vouchers which would be initially available at Nokia Priority Dealers in 9 cities across the country, said the release.

Nokia has inked tie-ups with leading content publishers, globally and in India to develop and expand the catalogue of N-Gage titles, added the release.