Nokia event: HMD Global’s CMO says Nokia is not just a trademark, but brand that even millennials are also happy to see.
In its second innings, Nokia wants to position itself as the people’s brand. And the responsibility to bring the change is in the hands of HMD Global, a start-up run by former Nokia employees. HMD Global, headquartered in Helsinki, Finland, has the rights to use the Nokia brand on mobile phones for the next decade.
Now, HMD Global is trying to encash on the emotional connect to establish itself in India – the world’s second largest smartphone market after China. It has launched three new smartphones in the country – Nokia 6 (2018), Nokia 7 Plus and Nokia 8 Sirocco. All three phones are powered by Google’s Android mobile operating system and will be made available at different price points.
“After the first year of operation we see that the brand love is absolutely there,” HMD Global’s Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer Pekka Rantala told indianexpress.com on the sidelines of the launch of new smartphones in India. “And the greatest news is that it’s not only coming from the older generations, but millennials are also happy to see that Nokia is back. That’s the reason why Nokia is a brand, not a trademark.”
Read more: Nokia 8 Sirocco first impressions: Good-looking phone, but expensive at Rs 49,999
Out of the three smartphones launched in India, Nokia 8 Sirocco is the company’s most premium smartphone to date. The flagship Nokia 8 Sirocco is wrapped in Gorilla Glass 5, with a stainless steel frame in between. The phone is thin at 7.5mm and comes with a p-OLED 5.5-inch dual curved display. It will sell for Rs 49,999 when it hits retail shelves later this month. First announced at the annual Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in February, Nokia 8 Sirocco will complete with the likes of Apple iPhone X, Samsung Galaxy S9 and Huawei P20 Pro.
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“We started to concept that product [Nokia 8 Sirocco] at a very early phase, right from the beginning of our whole story of HMD Global. It was a challenge to design something like this. Our designers are really happy with the Nokia 8 Sirocco,” says Pekka.
Pekka says he does not think that the Nokia 8 Sirocco looks like the Galaxy S6, Samsung’s flagship device for 2015.
While the Nokia 8 Sirocco has a sophisticated design language, it does remind one of the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge that was launched way back in 2015. In his defence, Pekka says he does not think that the Nokia 8 Sirocco looks like the Galaxy S6, which was Samsung’s flagship device for 2015. “This product [Nokia 8 Sirocco] has its own character; aesthetics and visual design are very important for a product, but for every Nokia device it applies that when somebody grabs the phone a user should say wow,” he said.
Read more: Nokia 6 (2018) vs Redmi Note 5 Pro: Price in India, specifications comparison
Nokia 8 Sirocco comes with the standard fingerprint scanner on the back of the device and not an in-display fingerprint sensor. Asked the reason for not adding the next-generation under-display fingerprint scanner into the Nokia 8 Sirocco, Pekka said “In every product, be it the Nokia 1, Nokia 8 Sirocco or in between, we always usually have a lot of alternatives at the concept stage. We test them, talk about them, and ask consumers about the product. And we did the same with the Nokia 8 Sirocco. Going forward we will be experimenting with different solutions, but for the Nokia 8 Sirocco we really feel that the fingerprint scanner on the back is the part of the design.”
Nokia 8110 with 4G connectivity will definitely come to India, confirmed HMD Global CMO Pekka Rantala.
Pekka also tried to justify the reason for going with Qualcomm’s last generation processor – the Snapdragon 835 – inside the Nokia 8 Sirocco. “We really wanted to make the design statement with the Nokia 8 Sirocco and create a balanced product, which is a high-performance one. We are really happy with a Snapdragon 835 and its performance on the Nokia 8 Sirocco,” he said. Pekka, however, chooses to remain silent over the arrival of the next flagship which might use a Snapdragon 845 processor.
Also read: Nokia 7 plus vs Honor View 10 vs OnePlus 5T: Price, specifications comparison
HMD Global also makes Nokia-branded feature phones, which are extremely popular in a number of emerging markets like India. The company is planning to bring the Nokia 8110 4G to the market, although Pekka didn’t reveal the exact launch time frame. “Based on all the feedback we’re getting, there is definitely demand for the Nokia 8110 4G. In fact, the 8110 is a bigger product than the 3310 which will also continue to sell,” he said.
The new Nokia 8110 is still a basic feature phone, running a forked version of the defunct Firefox OS created by KaiOS. Not only does it come with 4G, a selected number of apps (Facebook, Twitter and Google Assistant) will be compatible with the device. However, WhatsApp support is still missing at the moment. “I believe it [Nokia 8110 4G] will have many more great applications in the future.”
HMD Global has sold more than 70 million mobile phones globally and has its presence in 80 countries. New Nokia 6 and Nokia 7 Plus are being manufactured at the Foxconn factory in India, while the Nokia 8 Sirocco is still being imported to the country. The company’s next flagship, likely to called the Nokia 9, is speculated to launch in the second-half of the year. The buzz is that it will come with an iPhone X-like notch above the screen, an in-display fingerprint scanner, and a 41MP Zeiss-branded triple-camera setup on the back.