Nokia is looking to help out poor people in rural India by letting them purchase mobile phones on a payment plan. If you’re poor enough, Billy Mays will rise from his grave and clean the filthy clothes on your back with OxiClean … not really. Let me try that again. If you’re poor enough, Nokia will let you pay for a mobile phone over 25 weekly payments of 100 Indian Rupees ($2.05). Trials of this program have been completed successfully in over 2,500 villages in the southern states of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, and now the program is going to expand to 12 Indian states. Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo notes that mobile fone penetration in rural India is only at 13% and there is much room for growth. He also wants to let people know that while India is known by many as a low end market, that’s just nonsense since the “N97 and N86 are selling nicely in India.” I wonder if people working at the factory in Chennai will get access to a similar program, I mean they do make the fones so why not throw them a bone and let them keep a handset, but have it deducted from their wages over a certain period of time?
[Via: Wall Street Journal]