Slowdown fails to make any impact on Nokia sales

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Kolkata: At a time when global sales of mobile phones are showing signs of decline, handest manufacturing giant Nokia's sales have not been affected by slowdown, according to Vineet Taneja, head of marketing in India. "We have not seen any significant impact on sales here," he said.

When asked if the financial crisis has forced consumers to opt for low-priced models, Taneja said, "There is always a downward pressure on prices. Nothing more than usual has happened in the last couple of months."

According to a recent study undertaken by market research firm IDC Corp, global sales of mobile phones are likely to slide in 2009.

Nokia, which is gearing up to boost sales in both rural and urban areas, has tied up with the Indian Music Industry for content for its model 5800 Xpress Music. "Sales in rural and urban sectors are growing at almost the same pace," said Taneja. "Earlier, growth potential was higher in rural market, now urban market is also growing as people have started replacing old handsets with new ones," he said.

The company, with almost 70% market share in the Indian GSM handset market, has recently launched a pilot project, Live Tools, for farmers. The service offers purely agricultural informations like prices and availability of seeds, fertilisers and pesticides, and regular information on weather.

"We plan to roll out the service nationally this fiscal. The idea is to give information to rural consumers. For that, we need to partner with other companies and operators as well as local bodies," Taneja said.