Barcelona
HMD Global is very optimistic about the year ahead with less than a year. It can be, after selling 70 million devices in its first 6 months after coming on to the market.
“Nokia had sold 70 million units globally and ranked as the number one feature phone manufacturer in value globally last year, much ahead of our expectations. We launched smartphones in July last year,” said Per Ekman, Vice-President for Middle East and North Africa at HMD Global, which owns the rights to sell Nokia-branded phones and tablets.
He said the device has succeeded because it offers reliability, simplicity, ease of use, and quality and gives consumers a wide range of phones they love.
Sanmeet Singh Kochhar, General Manager for Middle East at HMD Global, told Gulf News that the company launched five Nokia models in the UAE last year.
HMD launched four new Android smartphones — Nokia 8 Sirocco, Nokia 7 Plus, new Nokia 6 and Nokia 1 and one sliding feature phone — Nokia 8110 with 4G — on Sunday.
When asked why HMD is launching older devices which has a nostalgic impact of consumers such as 3310 and 8110, Ekman said: “We think launching the iconic devices is a way to celebrate our Nokia brand.”
Kochhar said that Nokia 8810 is a heritage of Nokia and modern technology put together.
“There are certain apps such Facebook, YouTube and Twitter on 8810. We are working with more developers to put in more apps before we launch It in the UAE,” he said.
Nokia was rumoured to launch a 4G version of 3310 globally, following its launch of a 3G version in China.
“Most of the operators wants to move to 4G and so there is no point in launching the 3G version of 8810 in the region,” he said.
Moreover, he said that UAE is one of the top global markets for Nokia because in terms of smartphone penetration, the country is in top position and Nokia brand has been strong in the country.
Nokia 8 Sirocco, Nokia 7 Plus and the new Nokia 6 will join the Android One family while Nokia I will run on Android Go, a version of Android optimised for devices with 1GB RAM or less.
Kochhar said that the key barriers for Android Go is that the price of the smartphone and the data usage.
“How we have addressed that is ... the software is a lighter version of Android Oreo and apps are also lighter. We have a YouTube Go and the consumer can decide which quality of video to stream for less data usage. Users can download a video and watch it in the offline mode,” he said.
Nokia 8 Sirocco will be available in the UAE for Dh2,399, Nokia 7 Plus for Dh1,399, New Nokia 6 for Dh899, Nokia 1 for Dh299 from April onwards while Nokia 8110 will be available from June for Dh249.
