Nummela: We will have affordable #Nokia flagships and innovative #Nokia flagships

HMD’s CEO Arto Nummela gave an interesting interview for India’s NDTV. The host that led the interview asked pretty good questions and I’m quite surprised with that. The questions were direct, precise and well explained and Arto didn’t have much space to use the standard PR spins.

Maybe the most interesting part of the interview, that I recommend watching fully, is at the end when the host explains to Arto that there are two kinds of flagships in India (and outside, too): a device with top specification, but for an affordable price like Xiaomi or OnePlus3, and super-high end phones like Samsung Galaxy S8 or Apple iPhone. The host asked what kind of flagship will Nokia do, and Arto answered: “both”. He explained that for innovations that were never  in a phone, the phone has to be valued high, and then there are device for big audience that have enough in terms of specification, but a much lower price.

In an interview for IndiaTimes, HMD’s CEO Arto Nummela, CMO Pekka Rentala and President of HMD India Ajey Mehta shared some interesting insights about HMD’s business in India. We learn, for example, that the current Nokia lineup, the 3, 5 and 6, target 70% of India’s smartphone market and that 30% of traffic on Nokia websites come from India. They repeat that they don’t want a megapixel and spec race, but to focus more on the consumer by offering “Pure” Android experience with 2-years of updates and excellent customer support.

In terms of marketing, HMD’s Chief Marketing Officer Pekka Rentala repeated that HMD pledged to invest €500 million in the next 3 years, but a lot of marketing will be carried out by local retail partners that really want to sell the new devices. I once read that a big advantage of Nokia, beside the high customer loyalty, is also the high distributor loyalty, and joint investments in that ecosystem prove that. Ajey Mehta added that HMD will make sure that they operate with a profit.

Really interesting interviews, especially that one on NDTV that I highly recommend and can be checked out here. The written one for IndiaTimes can be read here.

Thanks LoveNokia for the tip. 🙂