Star, Nokia launch first news widget for region

Fifth from right in the front row, Prem Chand, the general manager of Nokia Emerging Asia, and, sixth from right, Mahfuz Anam, editor and publisher of The Daily Star, pose at the launch of a locally developed mobile news application, The Daily Star Widget, at the Westin hotel in Dhaka yesterday. Photo: STAR

The Daily Star in partnership with Nokia yesterday launched a locally developed mobile news application, the first of its kind on Ovi Store in the Southeast and Asia Pacific region.
Nokia users can access the English daily's news updates through The Daily Star Widget, which is available on Ovi Store, an online application store by the handset maker. The application was unveiled at a press conference at the Westin Dhaka.
“For the digitalisation of Bangladesh, it is important to provide local contents on mobile phones and internet. From our part, this is the first step in nurturing the local developers,” said Prem Chand, general manager of Nokia Emerging Asia.
He said such an initiative will not only create new opportunities for earning revenue for the local developers, but will also inspire them to tap the global market.
“We are proud to collaborate with The Daily Star to launch the first Bangladeshi mobile application in the Ovi Store, which is also the first news application in the Southeast and Asia Pacific region.”
Initially, the application will be available on Nokia smartphones like Symbian 3 and Series 60 models. However, cheaper Series 40 devices will also offer the service by the yearend.
Mahfuz Anam, editor and publisher of The Daily Star, said: “We want more readers to connect to us through newer ways, first with the printed paper, then through our website and now through their mobile phones.”
“The Daily Star prides itself on being at the forefront of innovation and that is why this widget is a big step ahead for us,” Anam said.
The widget will be a more convenient way of reaching those readers who are increasingly preferring electronic modes of accessing news and information to the printed form, he said.
"In the recent years, we have seen a great decline in the number of newspaper readers in the Western world due to the greater availability of internet."
"Despite the rising number of newspaper readers in South Asia, the same trend of the Western world may occur in our country within the next 15 to 20 years and today's initiative is a great step towards preparing for such a scenario," Anam added.
Nafid Imran Ahmed, IT strategist and in-charge of the online edition of The Daily Star, in a presentation showed different features of the application.
Users have to download and install The Daily Star Widget from Ovi Store on their Nokia handsets.
Later, they can browse and select any news update from the 12 categories, including top news, business, sports and entertainment. The widget also offers stocks and weather updates.
"We have found that developing applications on Nokia platform is quite simple," said Jamil Ahmed, director of technical development of JadeWits Limited, a local software developer that developed the application with The Daily Star.
Ovi Store, which is Nokia's trademark online store for games, videos, podcasts and other productivity tools and web-based services, now has 14 crore users worldwide.
According to Nokia officials, more than two lakh people are now signing up daily for Ovi, while the number of active Ovi Store users in Bangladesh is now 1.6 lakh.