Motorola, Nokia expect payoff in bridging the digital divide

0 Comments | USA TODAY, January, 2007 | by Kevin Maney

LAS VEGAS -- It feels perverse to meet amid the spectacle of 108-inch TV screens, automatic scalp massagers and cars with 20,000-watt stereos and talk about the digital divide. It's like ordering a seven-course spread at Spago and then discussing world hunger. But for at least two of the CEOs at this month's Consumer Electronics Show -- Ed Zander of Motorola and Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo of Nokia -- the billions of unconnected, undigitized, underserved people around the globe are often top of mind.

On the crass side, those billions are virgin potential customers, viewed by cellphone companies much the same as Starbucks sees the unfortunate souls who have never downed a half-caf mocha latte. As Zander noted during his CES speech, the number of new cellphone customers in India each...