HMD CEO: Huawei situation a chance for Nokia smartphones
HMD Global’s CEO Florian Seiche did a short interview CNBC on the day of the announcement of the new Nokia phones at IFA2019. HMD, the creator of new Nokia phones, announced three new feature phones and two attractive smartphones in Berlin.
Mr. Seiche explained that the pressure Huawei is facing from the US administration is a key opportunity for expansion of Nokia smartphones. HMD saw more interests from European partners and mentions a “chance in the US”, where the company is accelerating plans for that market.
While I can understand the higher interest in European market, that didn’t really manifest itself in sales considering Samsung was the biggest winner in the whole Huawei situation during Q2, I don’t see a connection between Huawei and the US market considering that the Chinese company isn’t present there.
That’s basically everything CNBC’s article says about the conversation with Mr. Seiche and I somehow feel that there is much more to be told about this topic. Any executive of any company commenting the Huawei situation has been very careful not to upset their Chinese partners, and we all remember the case of Nokia’s CTO jumping the gun and Nokia officially disavowing his comments a day later.
We also heard rumors that HMD will focus less on China and more on Europe and maybe the US with the announcement of still mysterious Nokia 5.2 and Nokia 8.2 that should arrive by the end of the year. That is in line with the few words HMD’s CEO said to CNBC, but, as always, only time will tell how this “shift” in strategy will manifest itself.
