Nokia reports its next billion users poll results

FINNISH PHONE MAKER Nokia has posted the results of its 'building phones for the next billion users' poll to further back up its strategy to bring budget smartphones to growing markets in developing countries.

Participants in the poll were asked to select what four aspects would be most important to them if they were to hypothetically build a phone for the next billion punters. The top answer in the poll was the need for long battery life with 19.86 per cent of people agreeing. In second place was Internet access with 11.41 per cent.

Third and fourth places were taken by robustness and low cost with 9.53 per cent and 8.29 per cent of the votes, respectively. Less important features that people cared about in such phone for the masses were a fancy user interface, games and Bluetooth.

In the most part the results match up with Nokia's recent announcement of its X1-00, its phone especially designed to be accessible to the great unwashed in poorer countries. The X1-00 definitely has a long battery life, with Nokia claiming it can last for up to 61 days. We assume that the phone will have Internet access after a forecast from Nokia that focused on access to the world wide web from mobile devices.

As to whether or not the phone is robust we can't say, but it is definitely cheap with Nokia saying it will sell for around €34.

Nokia doesn't seem to have it all spot on according to the results of the poll, though. One of the X1-00's features is the ability to contain multiple phonebooks but in the poll this option was the least popular, gaining only 1.08 per cent of votes. µ