Nokia Launches Mobiles with Alerts

Nokia has launched the first mobile phones that include alerts encouraging people to unplug the charger once the battery is full.

The company said that mobile phones sounding a beep and displaying an alert - "Battery is full, please unplug the charger" - could help in saving enough electricity to power around 85,000 homes in a year.

Starting with the new Nokia 1200, Nokia 1208, and Nokia 1650, the alerts will be rolled out across the Nokia product range.

Kirsi Sormunen, Vice President of Environmental Affairs, Nokia, said, "Around two-thirds of the energy used by a mobile phone is lost when it is unplugged after charging, but the charger itself is left in a live socket. We want to reduce this waste, and are working on reducing to an absolute minimum the amount of energy our chargers use. The new alerts also play an important role, encouraging people to help us in this goal by unplugging their chargers."

It is learnt that these alerts are part of a series of environmental initiatives that mobile manufacturers, led by Nokia, agreed to take action on this year. And Nokia is the first of these manufacturers to integrate these alerts into its products.

Nokia has decided to put the alerts into mass market products first to help maximize potential energy savings. The Nokia 1200, Nokia 1208, Nokia 1650 are targeting high volumes of sales in fast growing markets such as India, China, and Latin America, the company said.

The company has set its goals to further reduce energy consumption of its chargers. By 2010, it has set itself a lofty goal of reducing by an additional 50 percent the amount of electricity a charger consumes while still plugged into the mains.