Nokia goes local with Hindi SMS facility

From tomorrow, SMS will mean Saral Mobile Sandesh for Nokia apart from Short Messaging Services. As part of its localisation initiative, the global handset maker today announced predictive text input in Hindi in three of its models, facilitating sending SMS in Hindi.

"The lower mobile penetration in the Hindi heartland of the country makes a business case for handset makers and telecom operators to tap this market making it easier for the consumers to communicate in their own language," Sanjay Behl, head marketing, Nokia Mobile phones India, told reporters here.

The company plans to come out with language specific handsets in languages such as Tamil, Mengali, Kannad and Marathi in three-six months.

The predictive text input, which will help sending messages in Hindi will be available on three entry-level Nokia handsets Nokia 110, Nokia 1108 and Nokia 2300. By setting their phones in the Hindi language mode, subscribers will be able to send text messages in Hindi language.

Any subscriber with a Hindi user interface-enabled handset can read these messages in Hindi. Nokia, at present, has 24 such handset models available in the market. among the 24 models, 21 support Hindi text input.

The software enabling the predictive text input, has been designed by Engineers at the Nokia headquarters in Denmark in association with Indian professionals.

"We will target the 450 million Hindi speaking people to push our product," Behl said. The company will start a multimedia campaign through TV, print and outdoor advertising.

An ad film has also been designed to be shown in all cinema halls in the north. Behl also said the company was in talks with telecom operators to facilitate this offering.