The All New Nokia Mobile Communities

There are approximately 50 Million internet users and over 400 Million mobile phone users in India.  Similar numbers exist for other emerging markets as well.  Majority of this user base do not use smart-phones and neither do they have internet access.  How do you get this large set of users to communicate and share information with their friends, family and co-workers with ease and at an affordable price?

Nokia Mobile Communities is our attempt to provide a complete communities experience to the aforesaid users on the mobile phone without a dependency on the web or PC. The product has two main flavors – Conversations and Streams. Conversations, is ideal for short group chats with your social network (like coordinating when to meet for a movie or to occasionally check how things are going).  Streams, helps create channels for community building and following a topic (e.g. career tips, hyper-local news) or a person (e.g. fan group for a Bollywood star).

During this beta trial, the service is only available to users in India.  While the app will work on all Nokia devices that support Java, we’ve optimized the application for S40 phones with 240x320 screen resolution.  Keeping the Indian context in mind, presently SMS is the bearer of communication for the service to reduce cost to the user.  A simple-SMS interface is also supported, especially for non-Nokia devices.
We request you to don the hat of the ‘common man’ in India with limited disposable income and no Internet access when you use and evaluate the service.  Think about the connectivity and devices they have and whether this app will (or will not) meet their requirements.  Is it easy and intuitive for your parents, siblings (perhaps in another city) or even your domestic help to use?  We can always add support for high-end devices, but primary aim is to offer the best user experience to the average Joe.