New Delhi: August 17, 2006:  With the intent of further deepening its association with fashion and style, while connecting with India’s fashion conscious consumer, Nokia India today announced its association with Ashish Soni, India’s leading fashion designer to create a collection inspired by an upcoming luxury handset from Nokia. This exclusive collection designed by Ashish Soni will be showcased at Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week on September 02, 2006. Earlier in the day, Nokia along with FDCI announced its association with Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week as an associate sponsor. 

Speaking at the occasion Devinder Kishore, Director Marketing Nokia India said, “Nokia is delighted to strengthen its bond with the Indian fashion fraternity, both, through its association with Ashish Soni and India’s premiere fashion event WIFW. Nokia aims to further reiterate its design leadership with the Indian fashion aficionado through innovative market making initiatives and our tie up with Ashish Soni is yet another example of this intent.” 

Mr. Kishore added “A recent consumer segmentation study completed by Nokia globally, found that majority of the mobile phone consumers fall in the ‘style’ category. This segment places great emphasis on the aspirational value of a product and considers design to be a key parameter when making their purchase decision. Given analyst projections that 1 billion new consumers will join the mobile phone user group and influence how they want their phones to look and function it would be fair to say that the era of mass market design is coming to an end!” 

Commenting on the partnership with Nokia Ashish Soni said “Being a Nokia fan for over a decade now, I am honored to be associated with one of India’s leading lifestyle-technology brands. Our partnership will give me an opportunity to create a collection that represents the fusion of fashion & technology. I am delighted that I could partner with Nokia on an initiative that is so close to my heart”.

At Nokia, ‘design’ is the heart and soul of the brand. All Nokia products are designed to combine aesthetics, technology and ease of use in a sophisticated fashion. This approach has allowed Nokia to lead design innovation within the mobile phone industry as the company is constantly experimenting with innovative ideas for new and different types of devices based on core strengths of usability, high quality, innovative features, new looks and functionality. The company is also committed to creating new shapes (Nokia 3250 with a barrel design, and the transformable shape of the N90 and N93) and trying out new materials.