Nokia bets the pharm on Boots deal

High street chemist Boots has signed a deal with Nokia to sell the Mighty Finn's phones over the counter.

Boots will devote 'concept areas' to the phones, with both trying to push printing pictures from camera phones. The scheme was launched after a trial in three stores, with 50 stores slated to eventually sell the camera phones.

Nokia, which has over 30 per cent market share of the world's mobile handsets, will provide the handsets alongside printers designed for phone photos while Boots' staff will be there to talk users through the tricky business of pointing, clicking and printing.

Several larger Boots stores already offer a photos-from-mobiles facility in the form of Kodak kiosks, where customers can print out hard copies of photos stored on their phones' or digital cameras' memory cards.

Nokia isn't the first company to set up shop in a chemist. The UK's first 3G operator, 3, signed a deal with Boots' arch-rival Superdrug, two years ago. The mobile operator now has over 60 Superdrug outlets selling its products across the country.