So, recently, Nokia has been very hard at work telling us about the new Ovi mail service they’re introducing in Kenya. It sounds wonderful, doesn’t it? You can have access to email on your phone as long as you own a Nokia. You don’t need a Blackberry anymore.

I think it is a move that is long overdue. Mobile phone manufacturers have a unique opportunity to influence the way we use our phones. Just imagine this: Nokia could have an MPESA-type service that works the world over, couldn’t they? I wonder why they took so long to try and “own” their phones and what we do with them. But I digress.

Back to Ovi. While it is a super move and I am very much interested to see where it is going to end up, I think the advertisements are a bit dishonest.

One in particular says, “you can get upto 1,000 emails free of charge.” First off, this means that Nokia is going to charge us to use Ovi mail at some point. Can this really work? Probably. I would never pay to use Ovi mail, though. Because I can get email cheaper elsewhere. You can too – just download Gmail for mobile and you’re good to go. Or if you are comfortable working with POP and other email settings, almost all Nokia (and other) phones allow you to set up POP and IMAP access to email from your phone.

Secondly, “1,000 free emails” is just downright untruthful. You will still have to pay your mobile phone network operator for the data you use. For Safaricom this is Kshs 8/- per Megabyte while it is Kshs 3/- for YU – don’t know about the rest.

I love that Nokia is introducing Ovi Mail. I’d prefer some honesty though.

That said, Nokia’s Ovi is so much more than just email. I encourage yo to try it out!

Edit 12/10/09: I have confirmed that the first 5MB worth of emails using the Ovi Mail service is absolutely free. No network charges. Good deal made by Nokia.