South Africa tops Nokia OVI Mail users

Johannesburg (IT News Africa) —NOKIA says South Africa is among the top five markets where its Ovi Mail has proven popular.

“The inspiration for Ovi Mail came from the growing number of people, mostly in developing countries, without access to a PC. The top five countries for Ovi Mail subscribers are India, Indonesia, Mexico, Russia and South Africa. Since its inception in December 2008, Ovi Mail is available in more than 180 countries and supports 20* languages,” says the world’s biggest manufacturer of mobile phones.

Meanwhile, Nokia says over one million Ovi Mail accounts have been activated in just over six months. Officials say Ovi Mail is quickly establishing itself as the email account for the developing world.
Specifically designed for on device set-up, people can get their first email address and create and manage their accounts without use of a personal computer.

“More than just reaching a company milestone, this proves to us that there is a real appetite in the developing world for these types of tailored services,” said Tom Furlong, head of Consumer Messaging at Nokia. “For first-time email users, Ovi Mail provides a digital identity and we are thrilled by its rapidly rising adoption rate.”

Ovi Mail is free to set-up straight out of the box and comes with spam filters to block unwanted emails. The service is also accessible from a broad range of Nokia devices with the Nokia 2330 classic, Nokia 2630 and Nokia 5310 XpressMusic being some of the most popular devices used.

By Mthulisi Sibanda