As countries across the world make moves to curb the effects arising from electronic waste or e-waste, Finnish phone manufacturer, Nokia, said its ‘Take Back Initiative’ in Nigeria has not done well, promising that much more efforts would be channeled to the initiative.
According to reports, every month, about 50 million cell phones are replaced worldwide, but only 10% are recycled, adding that recycling will reduce greenhouse gas emissions equal to taking 1,368 cars off the road for a year.
Nokia’s Vice President, West & Central Africa, James Rutherfoord, who spoke on the sidelines of a global launch of its products in Lagos, said the firm will do more going forward.
“We have not made enough progress. We will do some more take back. Collection cans are available at our care centers where we can collect disused phones, batteries and chargers. I think we need to do more in the coming years. We will focus on it and probably put some very good initiative in place. We will continue and put some new initiative in place too,” he assured.
On the occasion, the firm unveiled two new devices in its portfolio which he said are designed to offer consumers great internet experiences at affordable price points. He said the Nokia Asha 205 and Nokia 206 are both available in single SIM or dual SIM versions and give people innovative ways to access social features and share their favorite content.
According to him, the Nokia Asha 205 and Nokia 206 are the first mobile phones devices to include Nokia’s exclusive Slam feature which allows consumers to share multimedia content like photos, music and videos with nearby friends almost instantly. He said Slam works with most Bluetooth-enabled mobile phones without the need to pair devices, and without the recipient needing to also have Slam. In just a few clicks, people can ‘Slam’ their content to another device faster than with Bluetooth alone and without consuming Internet data.
He said Nokia Asha 205 has a pleasingly tactile Qwerty keyboard and introduces a new, dedicated Facebook button, making it the perfect device for social people who want the fastest access to their Facebook profile. Combined with eBuddy Chat, Twitter and support for popular email accounts such as Gmail, the Nokia Asha 205 is designed to allow that people are never more than a few clicks away from their social networks.
Rutherfoord, estimated the retail price for the Nokia 206 is around $62 and it is expected to start shipping in the fourth quarter of 2012.
The new devices take full advantage of the Nokia Xpress Internet platform, which uses Nokia’s cloud technology to reduce data consumption by up to 85%, helping consumers enjoy more affordable Internet access. They also feature Nokia Nearby, a web app that helps consumers discover points of interest such as restaurants, shopping and ATM machines close to their location.
[Source: BizTechAfrica]
