India among top 10 nations using high-end smart phones: Nokia

Contrary to general belief that India is a market only for low-end cellular phones, world leader Nokia today said the country is among top 10 nations using smart phones offering mobile internet ideal for corporate and business professionals.

Launching its new device in the E-series (E51), Nokia has also tied up with British Telecom to offer specific solutions suiting the end users, Nokia Mobile Device Unit (Enterprise Solutions) Senior Vice-President Antti Vasara told here.

Nokia E51 extends business value to end-users and businesses through its ability to integrate tightly with corporate telephony systems (PBX) through Nokia Mobile Unified Communications solutions such as Nokia Intellisync Call Connect for Cisco and Alcatel.

"These solutions deliver desk phone calling features such as extension dialing, hold, transfer and conferencing to a single, mobile device," Vasara said, adding that it would truly be a fixed-mobile convergence enabling companies reduce their international call charges by routing the call over the corporate IP network.

Asked whether Nokia was looking for similar tie ups (as with BT) with other operators including in India, Vasara said "Yes. But we cannot divulge information at this stage."

The new device E51 would be available in India soon with a price tag of 350 Euros (Rs 18,500 approximately).

On the issue of affordability especially in India, Vasara said India was among the top 10 nations using high-end mobile phones and the number of users in this segment have been growing very fast.