Nokia planning to shut down its mobile banking system for emerging markets

Just two years ago, Nokia spent much of its keynote at CES extolling the virtues of its Nokia Money system, which would have allowed people in emerging markets to control their finances from Nokia’s mobile phones rather than needing access to a full computer (or bank). The service launched in India late last year and was slated to roll out in other emerging markets, but now Reuters is reporting that Nokia will shut it down sometime in the near future. According to a Nokia spokesperson, Nokia Money doesn’t fit into Nokia’s core business strategy, so it’ll be getting the axe. While this was going to be a major initiative, the company has made an effort to simplify its product offerings since Stephen Elop took over as CEO, so seeing Nokia shut down its extracurricular activities isn’t a huge shock. Despite this, we know that Nokia’s still focused on emerging markets -- it seems it is just going after them with hardware instead of software.