Sinhala phone by Nokia

Nokia introduced the world's first range of Sinhala language mobile phones to the Sri Lankan market this month.

Nokia's comprehensive Sinhala language support is provided on its latest range of affordable mobile phones, which includes the Nokia 2610, Nokia 2310, Nokia 1600, Nokia 1112, Nokia 1110i and Nokia 1110. The Sinhala language features include menu interface, text messaging, talking alarm, speaking clock, keypad and games.

"Keeping in line with our core philosophy of connecting people, the phones allow consumers to communicate with family and friends easily in their own language. The devices provide more than SMS capability in Sinhala. The whole user experience is in the local language. The lack of local language support has been a barrier to the effective use of mobile technology by the masses in Sri Lanka," said Prem Chand, General Manager, Emerging Asia, Customer and Market Operations, Nokia Asia Pacific.

The new local language support is expected to facilitate greater rural penetration of mobile phones. It can also bridge the digital divide that has emerged, mainly because the masses are unable to harness the full benefits of affordable mobile technology due to the language barrier.

The complete Sinhala language support enhances the overall effectiveness of communication, as certain language specific idioms and expressions can now be used. It creates opportunities for local language content developers, who can now develop games and other software to cater to a Sinhala speaking audience.

By 2008, Nokia expects that 3 billion people will own a mobile phone, with much of this growth coming from Asia Pacific markets like India, South-East Asia and Emerging Asia, where penetration levels are on a steep growth rate.

The Sinhala language phone project was the result of successful collaboration between Nokia, Dialog Telekom, University of Moratuwa and Softlogic. The project involved Nokia teams in Singapore, Finland, Denmark and China, working together with Dialog Telekom, University of Moratuwa, and Softlogic in the development and testing of the first Sinhala language mobile phones in the world.