Nokia to provide enterprise software for low-end phones

Nokia, the world's largest mobile-phone manufacturer, will expand the enterprise software it offers in its most affordable phones to allow people without computers access to the Internet and other services.

Nokia's most affordable phones will now come with e-mail and instant messaging and will allow users to get e-mails on the phone without connecting directly to the Internet.

In Kenya, Nokia's cheapest phones that sell for about 1,000 to 3,000 Kenya shillings (US$12.53 to $37.59) do not have Internet or e-mail applications.

The S-40 models will come with Ovi mail; which caters to users without existing e-mail accounts, said Tom Furlong, Nokia vice president in charge of customer messaging. The phones will have access to third-party software once the Ovi store goes online in June.

"The user will be notified via text message, that there is new e-mail; the user will receive e-mail headers instead of the whole message, which will utilize a tenth of the bandwidth used for logging on to the internet," said Furlong.

Speaking at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Nokia president and CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo said that from June 2009, all Nokia phones will come with special features that will allow users to do more than just make and receive voice calls.

"The global handset market is expected to contract for the first time this year -- Nokia is well-placed to weather the economic down turn," Kallasvuo said. "Smartphone features are quickly trickling down into cheaper 'feature phones'; which will make Nokia's activities on the services side even more important."

Kallasvuo encouraged mobile application developers to develop applications relevant to the region or the country, where mobile phone users can download software depending on their needs.