Nokia reveals a mobile phone literally made for sharing

happygeek 0 362 Views

Nokia recently undertook a survey of consumers in emerging markets and exposed a new trend: mobile phone sharing. Apparently, more than 50 percent of those surveyed in India and Pakistan, plus almost 30 percent in Vietnam, either already share or would be willing to share the use of their mobile phone with family or friends. Alex Lambeek, Vice President of Entry Devices with Nokia does not as the name suggests deal with doorbells, but rather the lower end of the handset product line. Lambeek reckons that phone sharing is a logical trend in the less mature markets, saying "more and more families are purchasing a mobile phone for the entire family to use, not just the head of the household."

In response, Nokia has announced a handset that is made to share. Literally made to share, from the ground up. The Nokia 1209 really goes the whole 9 yards as far as sharing is concerned, by offering cost management features built in so as to add to the ease and convenience of dividing up a mobile phone between more than one person. Cost management features include the pre-paid cost tracker application to keep tabs on who has been spending what on calls. I also rather like the multiple phone- book idea, allowing up to five people to store personal contact details and up to 200 numbers on a single phone.

Although the trend might well be in emerging countries only at the moment, and Nokia is targeting the handset in these less mature markets, there seems no real reason why it should not catch on elsewhere. Families on a budget are not limited to India, Pakistan and Vietnam after all...

Dani AI

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A few practical points that build on what observed and answer ’s question about how “multiple users” on a phone actually work.

Profile-style sharing on low-end handsets is a lightweight software layer, not a desktop-style multiuser OS. Expect named user slots that change which contacts, ringtone and simple settings are visible. Switching is normally a quick menu action or a short key press — no full reboot — so it doesn’t impose the kind of resource cost you see with PC accounts. The trade-off is firmware complexity, not huge RAM/CPU demands, so manufacturers can add it without radically changing the hardware.

If you plan to share a single device, set it up deliberately: create one slot per person, give each a distinct ringtone and a short label, move the user’s favourite contacts into that slot, and protect any administrative slot with a PIN. Test where SMS, voicemail and call logs land — many implementations keep a single global log, so assume messages may be visible to everyone unless the phone explicitly separates them. If precise spend-tracking is needed and the phone lacks an automated per-user ledger, use a simple manual log or a shared pre-printed airtime ticket system so each user records top-ups and usage.

When shopping, try devices in-store to confirm how profiles behave, whether contacts live on the SIM or internal memory, and whether per-profile protections exist. Consider carrier-side options too (family bundles or multiple SIMs) if privacy or detailed billing is important. These simple precautions make a shared handset far more usable and prevent most of the common friction people run into.

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Thinka 40 Posting Whiz

Interesting. So would this work in the same way you can have more than one user account on a computer? And you have to select the account at Startup? In which case, wouldn't that take up more resources, and be more expensive?

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