Andre Yoskowitz
9 Jan 2010 15:22
Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo added during his keynote speech at CES that the mobile phone manufacturer is promising $1 million funding for a developer that can design a phone that "helps improve the life of the poorest citizens in the world."
The operation, dubbed the Growth Economy Venture Challenge, includes both software and hardware innovations and the million dollar idea will be judged by a panel of Nokia developers and private venture capitalists. The "poorest citizens" of the world, as described by Nokia, are those that make under $5 a day, such as people in Haiti, and many parts of Africa.
"We've seen what the tech community can do when it focuses on problems that are also opportunities", Kallasvuo added. "We want to channel that energy toward improving lives in the developing world."
Kallasvuo illustrated some of the problems that developers will encounter, such as the fact that many in developing nations are illiterate, or lack bank accounts.
"Business people often tend to lump all of the growing countries outside the West into one category,” he noted. “They call them 'developing countries,' 'emerging countries' or 'emerging markets.' Each of these markets is uniquely different and complex. A one-size-fits-all approach just doesn't work."