GLOBAL – New technology isn’t just the preserve of high end devices. Often, finding ways of making lower end devices cheaper and more functional is as big a challenge as coming up with the next ground-breaking smartphone. Delivering genuinely practical features is key to making devices for emerging markets. That, and making devices affordable ($5 phone anyone?). Nokia’s success around the globe is founded not only on breaking new ground with technology, but delivering genuinely practical features to the mass market affordably and effectively. This week’s poll seeks your views on what the most important features are for an emerging market device. We’ve listed the key suspects in the poll below, but feel free to add your own in the “others” box and tell us why in the comments.

Yesterday saw the announcement of five new emerging market devices, including the most affordable phone Nokia has ever produced. The €20 Nokia 1280 doesn’t skimp on functionality and comes loaded with useful features for those who live in remote or rural areas, where a speaking clock and flashlight are far more useful than Bluetooth or GPS.

With a further four low-cost mobiles joining the 1280 in the new year, Nokia has drawn attention to the benefit of no-frills practicality like never before.
So we thought we’d ask you to tell us what you think is the single most important feature in these ultra-affordable phones.

Nokia 1616 -video

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Nokia 1280-video

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Dabbling in alchemy in pursuit of greater performance with less power

Berkeley, USA – There’s no disguising the fact that we’re shameless fans of what the teams over at the Nokia Research Center do, applaud NRC’s open innovation approach, and hurl praise at its many collaborators and radical thinkers. From recent developments such as Nokia Locate Sensor and indoor positioning trials to battery bending and face sketching, this is one of the most exciting divisions within Nokia, so it’s great to see another collaboration and new laboratory pop up recently in Berkley, California in the USA.

The new Nokia Research Center in Berkley is tasked with some fascinating projects coupled with important ambitions that could help alter (for the better) what our devices are capable of achieving in the future. One of the core areas of research is the alchemy of squeezing better performance from mobile products using less power consumption. Read on to find out more about this and the other fields of research that will be explored at Nokia’s latest research facility.

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Nokia 7020 hands-on video

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Nokia Life Tools and other cool things

GLOBAL – I’ve been a watcher of mobile phone use in emerging markets ever since Chris Heathcote planted the thought in my head many years ago. Back then, there were two billion mobile phone users globally and we were facing the prospect of one billion more being added over 18 months, of which 80 per cent of those will be first-time users in emerging markets without PCs. Indeed, the kernel of my Club 1100 thoughts come from that time, and with the reception the Nokia 1202 (very similar to the Nokia 1209 I am using) is having (see below), I think Nokia is onto something.

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Nokia 1202: cheapest phone ever

NEW DELHI, India – Today Nokia unveiled a stable of new handsets tailored to emerging markets, but it’s the 1202 that really stood out for me. It almost goes without saying that affordability is a key aspect for everyone in any country, but it’s a factor that’s amplified in poorer and more remote areas of India and Africa, so it was hugely encouraging to see the Nokia 1202 was announced bearing a price tag of just 25 Euros, making it the cheapest handset the company has ever launched.

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Announcing The 1100 Club (aka ‘Ditch your smartphone. Go dumb!’)

LONDON, UK – Do we really need smartphones? Indeed, why are they called smartphones? Are all other phones dumb?

I’ve been using cutting-edge Internet-connected mobile devices for around ten years and over time pushed the envelope so far, it’s even got ripped in a few places. Lately I’ve come to see that, in the end, it’s connecting to people (where have I heard that line?) that matters most to me and, for the most part, voice and text seem to do the trick.

Therefore, I hereby announce the formation of The 1100 Club (not to be confused with The 1100 Club).

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Fresh gaming possibilities for emerging markets

INTERNATIONAL- N-Gage might be stealing the mobile gaming limelight, but it turns out that new videogame horizons could stretch far beyond high-spec wireless mobile multiplayer action.