Nokia India Launches N-Gage Mobile Gaming Services In The Country

Nokia India has launched its gaming service N-Gage in the country. With this service mobile gaming in the country will get a new dimension. Users will get more personalised online gaming experience. This new service, a part of Nokia's upcoming portal Ovi, brings 30 titles initially developed by both Indian and offshore developers including EA Mobile, Gameloft, Glu Mobile and India Games. Moreover, the company is on its way to strike a deal with more content publishers that will expand its bouquet.

Nokia N81 8GB Mobile Phone

Games offered by N-Gage can be played on any N-Gage compatible Nokia device or on a PC too via a web portal developed for the purpose. Besides gaming this service makes connecting with community a breeze. Users can engage in chats, discussions on message boards or play games with other online players. Now one can purchase games in Indian currency. What is more, Nokia N-Gage allows one to test a game before actually buying it.

To make online transactions easiest possible, the company has tied up with Oxigen which provides e-vouchers what cane be used to purchase games. This facility will be initially available at Nokia Priority Dealers (NPDs) in 9 cities including New Delhi and the National Captial Region (NCR), Chandigarh, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Pune, Kolkata, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai. This is a very smart move by the Finnish company as this will create a platform for Ovi and make its entry effortless.

Nokia N-Gage service is compatible with Nokia N-Series cellphones and other phones by the company running S60 3rd edition as OS including N81, N81 8GB, N82, N79, N85, N95, N95 8GB, Nokia 5320 XpressMusic and 6210 Navigator.

Nokia Puts $70 Billion In Obopay To Bring Mobile Payments In India

There were news recently about Nokia, the world's largest mobile phone manufacturer, investing $70 billion in a US based mobile payments company Obopay. And the deal seems to be targeted at developing countries like India where the options to pay online are so limited.

Obopay platform facilitates mobile payments by turning a mobile phone into a sort of debit card which can be used to make payments from cellphones and you mobile number becomes a account number. You can pay through SMSs if you want to purchase services online. The platform links your bank account or cedit card to mobile phone. What is more, there is a system in place which allows you to avail of prepaid services too in case you do not want to link your bank account.

The number of people holding mobile in India is many times more than the those holding credit cards. And with Nokia on the verge of releasing its Ovi store where people can download and rent music, multimedia applications and movies, this investment makes sense. And Nokia is not alone to bring such services. Recently, Vodafone signed a mobile payment deal with Western Union a few months back.

All this indicates that mobile payments may finally be on their way to becoming norm in India.