Mobile Computing News

Photo: Nokia

Nokia has begun a new digital listings service called, umm, Listings. Nokia aims to make the service a place where people from emerging markets can trade or sell goods and services with one another, as well as use the service as a job board – much like Gumtree. The allure? It’s exclusive to Nokia handsets.

Solution orientated

Nokia Listings, which is being beta tested by Nokia India, aims to circumvent the barriers people in emerging markets face in trading goods and, more importantly getting jobs. According to the company, 60% of all hiring’s or direct sales between consumers are done through inexpensive yet tedious word-of-mouth, or through extortive middle-men. Nokia’s solution-orientated approach to this problem aims to deal with the challenge by allowing Nokia India consumers – and eventually all emerging market Nokia customers – to connect with one another without the tedium or prohibitive measures.

Focus – please

While this is a noble idea that could do gangbusters the same way Craigslist does in the US and Gumtree in the UK, we can’t help but wondering if this as another example of Nokia worrying about the wrong things. The company has become so monolithic that it has the staff to throw onto most any project it sees as somewhat viable. Nokia India is one of the groups most important units and this could work there, but we wonder if the troops shouldn’t be focused onto one common goal. What Nokia need to do is focus the collective efforts of the entire company on unraveling the great smartphone mystery. It’s very difficult believing a company that sells 111 million Nokia phones in a quarter and sells 1/3^rd of all mobile phones worldwide is struggling to eek out a profit. Oddly enough, that there is Nokia’s reality.

In fairness

Nokia Listings will be geo-connected to allow users in close proximity to connect with each other, and where that is not available, customers can use sms to reach each other. In fairness, it’s a brilliant initiative that could have great ramifications in the markets in which Nokia operates, a legacy which nobody can deny Nokia of repeatedly leaving in the emerging markets in which it operates.