Nokia launches new handsets for emerging markets

Nokia has announced a range of new affordable handsets for emerging markets, including its lowest-priced phone ever.

What's more, Nokia has also unveiled a new set of mobile internet services for these countries, due to go live early next year, and focused around email, agriculture and education.

The first of those, Mail on Ovi, is the first example of an Ovi service being rolled out for emerging markets. It opens the way for - at some point - N-Gage to follow suit.

But even before that, there's a reason mobile games companies should be following today's announcement with interest.

The seven new mobile handsets range in price from 20 to 90 Euros, and many are Series 40 devices that support Java gaming. All are expected to ship in the first half of 2009.

At a time when many mobile games firms are enthusing about the potential of iPhone, N-Gage and Android, and expressing frustration at the limitations of even high-end Java phones, the news that Series 40 handsets will be at the forefront of Nokia's emerging markets push is a reminder that J2ME will still be important to the industry for some time to come.