A short interview with HMD’s CMO Lars Silberbauer

We had a nice chat with Lars Silberbauer, the Chief Marketing Officer of HMD, regarding the news we heard today. HMD is taking a different strategy, and a part of the new strategy will include the original Nokia phone, which also got teased next to a Barbie flip phone and HMD legend and Fusion.

We listened to your questions and prepared some of ours. However, they were mostly technical, and Lars is a guy who digs marketing more than phone specifications, so to many questions, I couldn’t get an answer.

Anyways, questions were prepared around Nokia, HMD, and Sustainability, and I’ll leave them below.

By the way, despite all the wonders of the 5G network, which has been in operation for 4 years already, the MWC fair in Barcelona, the largest global event in the IT industry, has no internet. At least not functional. The same story every year. I lost connection with Lars 4 times and the sound was breaking up constantly.

 

New Nokia phone

Lars said that the Nokia phone is quite interesting and iconic, and people might like it. It is scheduled for this summer, and the plan is to be available soon after the announcement online and offline. However, they will try to target as many markets as possible, and the price will depend on the targeted customers. Lars mentioned that he’d like to see the phone available ASAP after the announcement since any delays will create negative results on the sales. HMD chose summer and pre-summer timing since the sales are the best then.

 

New partnership

Regarding the partnership with Nokia, HMD will fulfill the licensing deal till the end and do the sales, but he couldn’t talk much about the possible new deal since that stuff is dealt with by the legal team.

They will be forming a partnership similar to the one with Mattel and will be careful that the phones do not overlap. The new partner will be announced in April 2024.

New hardware

Sustainability is their goal, but it has to be scalable to bring profit. Lars mentioned that sustainability should be profitable and, therefore, scalable but it is not a charitable enterprise. Going with devices that have more powerful hardware (chipsets and cameras) is something that is researched, and profitability is always in focus of the company. Lars couldn’t tell me much about hardware since he repeated that social networks and marketing strategies are his thing. So I didn’t ask about camera-centric devices and some other stuff :).

Sales

However, Lars told me that the retailers are important for HMD and that the HMD brand will be built through strategic partnerships with retailers and carriers. Retailers will be in focus for those markets where offline sales are good, but for some other markets, online stores will be more developed. It is driven by demand, and regarding my question of the centralized EU store, for example, he said he needs to consult with logistics guys for that, but they are working on that. Lars did mention that the competition (I mentioned vivo, oppo, Fairphone and Nothing) will be tough so they need to focus on that to.

 

New brand visibility

I asked about the black and white style used for brand visibility and wondered whether that will be applied internally for the development of specific HMD UI for phones. Lars said that black and white are used for the brand only, but the phones will remain colorful. The reason for the colors used is the simplicity of combining them with other colors.

So, black and white for the brand, and colors for the phones. He didn’t know if polycarbonate would be used on phones.

 

New OS?

Also, Lars couldn’t say much about the possible usage of different OS. I suggested the use of Sailfish for future Nokia phones, but since that is not his expertise, I didn’t push further :).

 

 

Thanks Cathy and Lars for the time!

 

Thanks to all who have sent us questions. We summed them up and combined them with our own.Here are our questions:

HMD

While you mention the “human” aspect in “HMD” this element is pretty much digitized in company’s general presentation? Does this imply that the emphasis on physical presence in retail stores is no longer a priority?

Will you centralize online retail stores for various markets, for example, by creating a unique retail store for EU countries?

I have also encountered difficulty finding accessories both online and offline. Is there a plan to address this issue?

NOKIA

In light of the (Pulsating) transition to the HMD brand, what is the current strategic direction for the (eventual fusion) with Nokia brand? Can we anticipate new product offerings or primarily re-releases with cosmetic updates?

Is there a possibility of brand licensing renewal after the current license expires?

Sustainability is undoubtedly important, but it also entails producing more powerful hardware capable of running flawlessly for extended periods. Are you planning to expand your portfolio to include Snapdragon 7XX or 8XX Series processors?

As you’re currently experimenting with new brands other than Nokia, are you considering experimenting with other operating systems for your mobile phones? Sailfish might be a suitable OS for slightly smarter feature phones.

SUSTAINABILITY

Also, a more powerful single camera sensor could lower the costs and make the phone sustainable too

HMD has recently shifted its focus from creating a camera-centric device to creating a more sustainable smartphone options. However, despite this shift, the majority of comments and feedback suggest a strong desire for a device with a capable camera and processors. What are the limitations that may be influencing the company’s ability to meet this demand from users?

Nokia 9 PureView is a revolutionary take to mobile HDR imaging, something we haven’t seen before. Given the advancements in technology since its launch in 2018, can we expect to see a future iteration of PureView that builds upon the earlier innovation with enhanced processing and ISP capabilities?