Mobile-phone handset maker Nokia has launched its Ovi mail offering in East Africa, with service available to users in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania.

Ovi Mail has been developed primarily for first-time e-mail users in emerging markets, though it is being offered globally. The offering is aimed at users who do not have an e-mail account or have difficulty accessing a PC.

"Ovi Mail gives such users the opportunity to create an email account directly on their devices and start communicating with their family and friends," Dorothy Ooko, the communications manager for Nokia in Eastern and Southern Africa, said via e-mail.

In more developed markets where users have e-mail accounts and find it easier to access PCs, Ooko said Ovi Mail gives them the opportunity to create a new e-mail account for mobile devices and cross-access to other Ovi services. Ovi Mail enables Nokia mobile device users to create and use e-mail accounts directly on their mobile phone.

"We have received mail from consumers telling us how this has transformed how they do business," Ooko said.

"The most memorable was a woman in Kajiado, Kenya who said she no longer has to travel to a cyber cafe for mail as she can communicate directly with many of her clients."

Ooko said the service so far has local language support for 11 languages, with future plans to support more than 80 languages. Ovi Mail can be set up and accessed directly on users' service-optimized Nokia Series 40 devices.

The mail offering provides a mobile client interface and service that enables users to access their pre-existing e-mail accounts from more than 1,000 ISPs (Internet service providers) around the world.

Ooko said the key drivers for a new e-mail account for those who already have Web e-mail include the ease of setup, ease of access, and the number of access points.

"Users will be charged by the local operators based on the amount of data used to send and receive emails," Ooko said. To access Ovi Mail, a user simply needs to go to the e-mail setup wizard on their Nokia Series 40 device or Nokia S60 device such as the Nokia N97. Ovi Mail is also available on the Web at Ovi.com.

More than 1 million Ovi mail accounts have been activated over the past six months. The top five countries for Ovi Mail subscribers are India, Indonesia, Mexico, Russia and South Africa. Since its inception in December 2008, Ovi Mail is available in more than 180 countries.