In a bid to further increase the penetration of Nokia Store and Nokia Music in India, the Finnish handset maker has announced two new billing tie-ups with Indian mobile operators.
First up is a tie-up with Vodafone India for Nokia Music. Vodafone India consumers using Nokia's music service on their Nokia feature phones and Nokia Asha smartphones can now easily renew their subscriptions via their Vodafone postpaid or prepaid accounts. Renewal subscriptions for the Nokia Music Store are available for three durations viz., 7 days for Rs 50; 30 days for Rs. 99; and 90 days for Rs. 250. Taxes and data charges are separate as applicable. With this integration, Vodafone India consumers can pay for the renewal as part of their monthly phone bills or have the amount debited from their prepaid balance.
Commenting on importance of the Nokia Music offering, Mr. Viral Oza, Director Marketing, Nokia India, said, "Music with its universal appeal plays a key role in differentiating the Nokia experience. We have a strong proposition in the Nokia Music Store and are delighted with the tremendous consumer response we are witnessing in India."
Continuing with the theme, Nokia also announced a billing tie-up with Idea Cellular for Nokia Music as well as Nokia Store. The tie-up will enable Idea customers to pay for apps bought via the Nokia store and/ or renew their Nokia Music subscriptions using their prepaid or postpaid accounts. Nokia Music subscriptions rate for Idea customers are the same as their Vodafone counterparts.
Speaking at the announcement, Sashi Shankar, Chief Marketing Officer, Idea Cellular, said "Our initiative with Nokia will enable affordable and easy access to music and entertainment based apps on the Nokia platform, in remote parts of the country where Internet is only accessible on mobile."
The Nokia Store currently offers over 120,000 pieces of content on Nokia phones. This includes applications, games, videos, podcasts, productivity tools, web and location-based services among others. Globally, the Nokia Store drives more than 15 million downloads per day and India currently sees over 80 million downloads per month.
The Nokia Music Store is the largest online repository of legal digital music in India with a catalogue of over 4.5 million DRM free songs, including across 16 Indian languages, and 1.4 million song downloads a day. A range of Nokia Asha and Lumia devices come with the bundled unlimited music service subscription ranging from several months to a year.