Nokia to make Sri Lankans mobile savvy

By Uditha KUMARASINGHE

Prem Prakash Chand was appointed General Manager, Nokia Emerging Asia in April 2006. In his role Chand is responsible for Nokia operations in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan and Maldives and is based in Dhaka.

Chand participated in Nokia Connection 2010 held at Conrad Centennial Hotel, Singapore. In an exclusive interview with the Sunday Observer he spoke of Nokia's commitment to invest in Sri Lanka and on their strategies to deliver the latest range of devices and solutions which allow customers to create, connect and be entertained like never before.

Nokia has a lot of expectations for Sri Lanka whose per capita income is one of the highest in the region, has a very high level of literacy and was the first to get the 3G facility in the region.

We have introduced an interface for Sinhala users. This year we will introduce a Tamil interface as well. In our Sinhala interface mobile phones, all key boards are in Sinhala, allowing the send of text messages in Sinhala.

We are the dominant player in Sri Lanka.

However, there is a significant improvement in grey products in Sri Lanka. At present nearly 40 percent of the Sri Lankan mobile market is owned by the grey market.

The Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (TRC) has decided to introduce a label on every mobile phone to be imported to Sri Lanka. According to this move, the product should be approved by the TRC. In addition, every original mobile phone has a type label as well.

All products we bring into the country will have the TRC approval number. Ninety percent of the legally imported phones in Sri Lanka is imported by Nokia.

Thousands of mobile phones which have not been legally brought in are available in Pettah market. When mobile phones are imported in this manner, TRC has the ability to take them to Courts.

We have no authority to go to the Police to raid retailers. We want to somehow control this illicit trade.

The Sri Lankan Government is moving towards the right direction to reduce the tax imposed on mobile phones.

Huge benefits will accruefrom supporting the industry. It would facilitate increase of the GDP and employment opportunities as well. The Government needs to support the industry in terms of educating the consumer.

Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) is another area which is an issue.

There is a need for dialogue between the Government and the private sector. We will invest more on marketing, customer care and distribution.

Smartphones

At present the smartphone industry is quite expensive. In years to come, it will become more affordable. The industry will be led by smartphones.

We are the dominant player with symbians and smartphones.

Commenting on how Nokia is to retain and enhance its market share facing stiff competition, he said that high competition is always good. We should encourage competition as having competition means that we can all work collectively in educating the consumer in lobbying the Government rather than only one player taking the lead.

In terms of our strategies to deal with competition, at present the industry is very much moving away from word centred devices to mobile phone applications. What we need to do is to provide the consumer with an experience on the device such as the use of surfing, uploading, images on the web and connecting on to the social network site Face Book.

Samsung, LG and Motorola are our key competitors.

We are looking at the youth market as well. Competitors talk about youth messaging and music. We are also very much concerned on providing services like Ovi mail, Ovi share and Ovi chat.

We are looking at having workshops for consumers to educate them on devices like Face Book and mobile Internet surfing.

Our research has shown that more than 50 percent of people who access the Internet in the emerging markets do so on their mobile devices. Our focus is on our marketing network to introduce mobile Internet to the consumers at an affordable price.

In terms of mobile WIMAX and 4G infrastructure, he said that markets in Europe, America and Australia already have cables and wires that run into houses and buildings. They don't have a need for 4G, 3G or WIMAX.

Mobile internet is the best option as it is convenient, affordable and accessible wherever you are. Our focus will be to develop mobile Internet and mobile services.

We can only make the regulator aware of the importance of the 3G, WIMAX and mobile Internet.