What next for HMD Nokia?

nokia
Amit Sharma, Senior Manager - Research, Industry Intelligence Practice, CMR

Amit Sharma, Senior Manager - Research, Industry Intelligence Practice, CMR

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Despite aggressively launching eight models of smartphones in 2018, Nokia has not been able to achieve much traction in the India Smartphone Market. However, they are going strong in the feature phones segment. This is contrary to Nokia’s strategy of wanting to be seen as a strong Smartphone player. Earlier this month, Nokia launched two smartphones, Nokia 6.1 Plus and Nokia 5.1 in India. The question remains: Will Nokia be able to rewrite their India script, and gain traction?

Nokia 1, the entry level smartphone is doing fairly well and eating-up the market share of Indian brands such as Intex, Lava, Micromax and Itel. Obviously, this would not be a focus segment for brand like Nokia which was used to be known as reliable and value for money brand.

It is quite clear from their pricing strategy that Nokia wants to capture a slice of the INR 15-20k price band. However, this price band is already overcrowded with big giants like Samsung, Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo and Huawei are doing extremely well. These brands have strong hold in the market which would not be that easy for Nokia to break. Oppo F3, Samsung J8, Xiaomi Mi Max 2, Honor 9i, Vivo V7 Plus are some of the other models which will surely give tough competition to Nokia 6.1 Plus.

Whereas, Nokia 6.1 Plus comes up in 5.8-inch full HD+19:9 screen ratio with 96% colour gamut which can provide users vivid viewing experience. It can make Nokia 6.1 Plus a perfect smartphone for enjoying immersive content experiences. Behind the elegant looks, Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 636 Mobile Platform is used which will be 40% faster than the previous iteration of the chipset. #Bothie mode in which one can use AI enhancements on both cameras simultaneously with masks and filters and stream it live in real time to Facebook and YouTube is available directly from the camera app, another first made available on a Nokia smartphone.

Nokia 5.1 Plus has MediaTek Helio P60 octa-core processor with stunning edge-to-edge 5.8-inch HD+ display which will give fans maximum content with a minimal footprint. Gaming, video and multi tasking applications are handled with ease, all thanks to powerful engine.

Security is also given high priority with both phones is part of Android One family of Nokia smartphones, offering an experience designed by Google that is smart, secure and simply amazing.

In Conclusion

The Nokia brand has a strong emotional connect for most Indians. Considering the huge opportunity in this price segment, Nokia can grow immensely. In order to do so, they need to back their product with a strong marketing and promotional strategy.

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