Nokia braces itself for iPhone challenge

BANGALORE: Nokia India is planning to launch a series of new offerings over the next six months to take on competition from Apple’s iPhone and maintain its lead.

The company will launch new mobile games, an online music store and a sophisticated lifestyle mobile brand Supernova as a foil for Apple’s iPhone when it is launched in India.

Nokia India also unveiled on Monday its Nokia 6210 Navigator phone, which is the company’s first GPS-enabled mobile device. It has an integrated in-map compass for guidance.

The device also features a 3.2 megapixel camera, MP3 player and stereo FM radio. The phone has been priced at Rs 18,000.

Nokia now has 10 devices in the market that have the personal navigation feature including the Nokia N78, Nokia 6110 Navigator and Nokia E90 amongst others.
Devinder Kishore, marketing director, Nokia India, said Nokia 6210 Navigator comes with pre-installed maps of eight cities including Delhi and NCR, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Pune, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad.

“Maps of additional cities will be added later,” he said. Kishore also said Nokia India is all set for the 3G rollout. He also dismissed the buzz about 3G compatible phones being unaffordable.

“The costs of these phones would be around Rs 7,000-Rs 35,000. The company currently markets around 30 3G compatible devices in India,” he said.