Nokia to make a comeback to India by June

HMD Global that now owns the license for the ‘Nokia’ brand, is all set to launch its phones in the Indian market this June.

Reportedly, the company that recently launched a re-designed Nokia 3310 along with Nokia 6, 5 and 3, will be looking to establish its presence in the offline channels as well. To do so, the company plans “to rope in over 400 distributors who can reach out every nook and corner of the country and set up 300 service centres.” “Depending on the scale of business in India, could set-up exclusive brand stores in the country,” HMD Mobile India vice president Ajey Mehta told ET.

The company is currently in talks with Foxconn to manufacture its handsets in India. Ajay further adds that their studies have shown that the Nokia brand has 95 percent brand awareness and recall in India. “We are confident of making a big comeback,” he added.

Nokia, which was a pioneer in mobile technology, failed to match in the smartphone segment when it joined hands with Microsoft to use Windows Phone OS instead of Android. It eventually had to sell its smartphones business to Microsoft. Now, it is making a comeback of sorts with HMD Global powered by Google’s Android operating system under the Nokia brand.

“We will expand the portfolio and have a presence across price segments. However, we will not be the cheapest smartphone brand in the market. While pricing will be benchmarked against competition, but it will be as per the value and experience we provide,” added Mehta.