AGL 40.20 Decreased By ▼ -1.30 (-3.13%)
AIRLINK 129.11 Increased By ▲ 1.11 (0.87%)
BOP 6.60 Increased By ▲ 0.34 (5.43%)
CNERGY 4.03 Decreased By ▼ -0.10 (-2.42%)
DCL 8.45 Increased By ▲ 0.01 (0.12%)
DFML 41.25 Increased By ▲ 0.56 (1.38%)
DGKC 87.00 Decreased By ▼ -0.90 (-1.02%)
FCCL 33.35 Decreased By ▼ -0.75 (-2.2%)
FFBL 65.90 Decreased By ▼ -0.43 (-0.65%)
FFL 10.54 Decreased By ▼ -0.02 (-0.19%)
HUBC 110.70 Increased By ▲ 2.00 (1.84%)
HUMNL 15.23 Increased By ▲ 0.77 (5.33%)
KEL 4.78 Increased By ▲ 0.13 (2.8%)
KOSM 7.83 Increased By ▲ 0.50 (6.82%)
MLCF 41.90 Decreased By ▼ -0.82 (-1.92%)
NBP 60.50 Decreased By ▼ -0.34 (-0.56%)
OGDC 182.80 Increased By ▲ 3.83 (2.14%)
PAEL 25.36 Decreased By ▼ -0.34 (-1.32%)
PIBTL 6.26 Increased By ▲ 0.20 (3.3%)
PPL 147.81 Increased By ▲ 1.66 (1.14%)
PRL 24.56 Decreased By ▼ -0.35 (-1.41%)
PTC 16.24 Increased By ▲ 0.10 (0.62%)
SEARL 70.50 Increased By ▲ 0.30 (0.43%)
TELE 7.30 Increased By ▲ 0.08 (1.11%)
TOMCL 36.30 Increased By ▲ 0.10 (0.28%)
TPLP 7.85 Increased By ▲ 0.01 (0.13%)
TREET 15.30 Decreased By ▼ -0.29 (-1.86%)
TRG 51.70 Increased By ▲ 1.34 (2.66%)
UNITY 27.35 Increased By ▲ 0.45 (1.67%)
WTL 1.23 Decreased By ▼ -0.01 (-0.81%)
BR100 9,842 Increased By 47.4 (0.48%)
BR30 30,036 Increased By 389.6 (1.31%)
KSE100 92,520 Increased By 499.1 (0.54%)
KSE30 28,786 Increased By 121.7 (0.42%)

Nokia chief executive Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo praised the mobile phone on Friday as a history-changing tool and challenged developers to create programs for poor countries. "These little devices have done more to improve people's lives than perhaps any technology in history," the head of the Finnish mobile phone giant said in a keynote address at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) here.
The Nokia CEO said relatively cheap mobile phones had done much to improve the lives of people in developing nations. "Here is the Nokia 1616, nothing to get too excited about," he said. "(But) it includes a built-in flashlight, a dust resistant keypad, an FM radio, a speaking alarm clock. "Farmers in India and Indonesia can use it to get the latest information on crops," Kallasvuo said. "The mobile device has become a necessity for upward mobility.
"For the majority of the world's people, their first and only access to the Internet will be through a mobile device - not a PC," he said. "And this access is spreading very, very fast." Kallasvuo said there were 4.6 billion mobile subscriptions among a global population of 6.8 billion people. "We are near the day where we can talk about the whole connected world," he said.
He also announced that Nokia was putting one million dollars behind the first "Nokia Growth Economy Venture Challenge" to encourage developers to design mobile products or services that raise the standard of living in poor nations. "We want you to come up with new and innovative ways to help people," Kallasvuo said.
"We've seen what the tech community can do when it focuses on problems that are also opportunities," he said. "We want to channel that energy toward improving lives in the developing world." Nokia said the Venture Challenge is not limited to software or hardware that uses its devices or software platforms. The million dollars will be invested in the organisation with the best idea with the winner announced in June.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2010

Comments

Comments are closed.