HMD launched its own branded smartphones in the Indian market recently looking to start a new chapter in the country. HMD has been and will make Nokia phones for consumers but the company has shared an interesting update around its future plans for the smartphone segment.
Speaking in an interview, Jean-Francois Baril, Founder of HMD Global pointed out that HMD will now focus on its own brand for smartphones.
The Indian market was excited with the comeback of Nokia with Android smartphones manufactured by HMD Global in 2016 but consumers haven’t seen enough value in their devices which is evident from the industry analyst data over the years. HMD now feels that it wants to start on a clean slate and give the HMD branding enough room and less intrusion from the legacy of Nokia.
End Of Nokia In India?
Baril was even quoted saying that that company is happy to focus on Nokia phones but only for the feature phone segment, which is still a 300 million strong market in countries like india. For smartphones, Nokia doesn’t matter too much, to be honest. But, for feature phones, it matters. It is a major transformation,” he was quoted saying in this report.
Nokia is a heavyweight in the market but even that brand needs strong core products to justify its marketing hype from the company. HMD has tried its best to compete with Chinese brands in the country and give them a better fight with specs-based products.
Having Nokia alive in the feature phone segment does have its merits but even there the company would need to innovate rather than dish out iconic models to appeal to a different consumer bracket.
HMD claims it is going to see India as an important market but it clearly needs a revised strategy to succeed in a tough country and if it plans to bring more 5G devices than 4G, as Baril said in the interview, the pricing game has to be smart and strong.
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