Telecom Lead India: Nokia has signed partnerships with
Vodafone India and Bharti Airtel. The partnership enables Vodafone and Airtel
consumers to download paid content on Nokia’s mobile application store and pay
as part of monthly mobile phone bills or have the amount deducted from the
pre-paid balance.
Nokia Store has more than 100,000 pieces of content. The
Nokia Store is driving more than 13 million download requests per day globally,
from 3 million downloads over a year ago. Nokia Store India sees more than 60
million downloads a month. Currently consumers have the option of purchasing
premium content via credit cards.
By bringing premium apps to consumers through the Nokia
Store via a convenient purchase process, this relationship aims to nurture the
apps ecosystem and usher in significant growth in adoption of data and usage of
apps in India. This would also offer significant monetization
opportunities to developers and galvanize local content development,” said
Sanjoy Mukerji, chief commercial officer, Vodafone India.
This partnership will strengthen our efforts to increase
usage of Mobile Internet services in India. It will provide access to premium
Apps, Games etc. from across the globe, thereby enriching the customer
experience. In addition it will accelerate the development of the Mobile
Internet ecosystem in India,” said N Rajaram, chief marketing officer, Bharti
Airtel.
Nokia also announced the launch of in-app billing
solutions, which allow consumers to purchase digital content directly from
within the application’s interface providing them with greater control over the
content they purchase.
The response from consumers in India has already
exceeded our expectations, with the number of monthly downloads at 60 million
and growing. We believe our partnership with Vodafone and Airtel, the two
largest GSM mobile operators in the country, will provide more and more
Indian consumers easy access to paid content on the Nokia Store,” said Viral
Oza, director Marketing, Nokia India.
