BARCELONA, Spain – Stephen Elop delivered what can only be described as a cheese-fest during his appearances during MWC at the Barcelona Fira this week. Laying it on thick, the Microsoft Corp. transfer refused to talk about the new MicroKia partnership, instead opting for the same old spiel about how Nokia Corp. was saving the world.
“We have an opportunity to bring forward a connected world,” said Elop noting that he wanted to be personally responsible for bringing the next billion people on the planet to the Internet via their mobile phones. “That first connection is the important one,” he blathered, while pictures of third world people speaking on mobile phones flashed away in the background.
To do that, however, Nokia is going to zone in on several key strategies, said Elop, especially in pushing the cheaper lower end phones in Nokia’s line up. Already, said Elop, over a million Series 30 and Series 40 devices are shipped every day, not a bad stat to start with.
Even people who are poor and live in a shack want to feel great about what they carry in their hand, gushed Elop, especially if it offered them Nokia life tools to help them deal with their lowly misery.
The new CEO rambled on about “life browsers” and of course made rather a lot of Nokia’s Money service, without which, we were led to believe, most of the developing world would never be able to buy anything … not a new milk cow, nor fresh water.
But what the developing world really needs, said Elop, was social media and location based services. After all, if we in the west will soon be getting deals pushed to us every time we pass a Starbucks, why not push advertise to a fisherman in Indonesia? Surely we Westerners can cash in on the poor through mobile somehow?
To that end, Series 40 maps will be introduced so location-based services can be leveraged at lower levels, said Elop and Nokia will be working tirelessly to “drive third-party innovation through local partnerships,” as an investment in the future.
Noting that he’s been jetting around the world, Elop said he’s convinced people are using mobile devices to affect life changes, and Nokia wants in on it – whether through finding fresh water sources in Kenya through Nokia’s mobile mapping, or agricultural updates via SMS or even Nokia bank accounts in India.
“Everything is about connecting the unconnected and Nokia will play a critical role,” he said.
“All of us in this room have the opportunity to bring together a connected world,” he gushed, adding “We have the passion to do this world over. This is Nokia’s purpose. We’re on a path forward … connecting people.”
Excuse us, but can you please pass the bucket?
