Thursday, February 26, 2009

It may be just a rumour ...

... but the electronic market was abuzz that, following Mobilimp's decision to donate cellphones to the deaf, electronic giant Sohni will donate TV sets to the blind.
Before mocking the telco's initiative, please understand that there's method in their madness: These are non-working sets!

6 comments:

  1. Sohni or Sony?

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  2. @ali Your name doesn't SOUND German, Sir.

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  3. Refurbishing old mobiles is not such a silly idea, but why try and 'own' the channel (which is the natural fallout of putting such huge corporate muscle behind it)? Potentially, such initiatives should proactively encourage local small-scale (and semi-literate) enterprise to be a part of a sustainable value chain.

    In English, that means, build a network of people to fix and refurbish second-hand mobiles. Put a stamp of approval on their work, and ensure there is a steady supply of devices funneled from the marketplace. This has been done before, with the Intel branding of 'Intel Inside' being used to support small businesses that assemble and sell computers.

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  4. Even if a deaf person is given a cell-phone for free, he or she would have to hire some one who knows sign-language to make or receive calls on his/her behalf.

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  5. According to Irfan Mumtaz, President Pakistan Association of the Deaf: “These handsets will be a great asset as the hearing impaired
    individuals rely solely on SMS messaging as their mode of mobile communication.”

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  6. @Waqas: Ouch!

    But perhaps he meant to say that as communication devices, they are at least easily seen as texting devices, without worrying about the voice part of it, which might be in any case only partially useful.

    It would be very positive if the company also arranged, or supported r&d into providing, local scripting.

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