In a country where just 7% of the population has access to the Internet, such real-time market data is so valuable that the farmers are willing to pay $1.35 a month for the information.
What is unusual about the service is the company selling it: Nokia, the Finnish cell phone maker, which unlike its rivals — Samsung, LG, Apple, Research In Motion and Sony Ericsson — is focusing on some of the world’s poorest consumers.
Since 2009, 6.3 million people have signed up to pay Nokia for commodity data in India, China and Indonesia. On Tuesday, Nokia plans to announce that it is expanding the programme, called Life Tools, part of its Ovi mobile services business, to Nigeria.
With 152 million residents, Nigeria is Africa’s most populous country. But, Nokia says, only 29% of the Nigerian population owns a cell phone, although other figures place the level higher because some phones are shared. While media coverage of the mobile industry tends to focus on the fast-growing and lucrative smart phone market, 77% of all cell phones sold in the third quarter were simpler models, capable of little more than text messaging.
Two-thirds of the globe’s 4.6 billion mobile phone users live in emerging markets , where Nokia is the market leader with a 34% share, according to Strategy Analytics. By selling valuable price data at a relatively low cost, Nokia is blending commercial and humanitarian goals to attract the next generation of upwardly mobile phone users.
“For Nokia, Ovi Life Tools creates tremendous brand loyalty,” said Wally Swain, a mobile analyst with the Yankee Group in Bogota, Colombia. “Farmers and their families will not want to lose this capability.”
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