Want Nokia to retain glory as one of top smartphone brands in 3-5 yrs: HMD

Want to be amongst the top players in the market, there is no question about it: HMD Global VC

HMD Global, which holds the rights to Nokia brand name, aims to rank among the top smartphone players in the next 3-5 years in India as it works towards restoring the old glory of the iconic label.

Once a dominant player in the Indian market, sometime around 2012, Nokia began to see a downfall in its market share, hurt by its slow response to changing trends like dual SIM, touchscreen smartphones.

This was also the time when homegrown firms like Micromax and others like Samsung began to eat into Nokia's market share, leaving it with under 10 per cent share at the end of 2012.

The market has changed even more with an influx of Chinese brands like Oppo and Xiaomi that have expanded their presence and captured considerable market share.

"In the next 3-5 years, we want to be amongst the top players in the market, there is no question about it," HMD Global Vice President India Ajey Mehta told PTI.

He added that the company has received a great response to all its devices launched in the market so far.

Asked about how the company plans to compete with rivals that are spending millions of dollars on marketing, Mehta said: "We want to build a firm foundation and a sustainable business going forward".

"We will compete on the pillars that we believe Nokia can stand on -- brand, pure Android, designer craftsmanship and real life experiences," he added.

India is one of the fastest growing smartphone markets globally. As per International Data Corporation (IDC), 28 million smartphones were shipped to India in the April-June 2017 quarter with Samsung commanding 24 per cent market share. The others in the top 5 tally included Xiaomi (17 per cent), Vivo (13 per cent), Oppo (8 per cent) and Lenovo (7 per cent).

HMD today launched a new device - Nokia 8 - priced at Rs 36,999 that will be available in India starting October 14.

The device will be available across key mobile retail outlets as well as on Amazon.in. It features 5.3-inch display, 4GB RAM, 64 GB internal memory (expandable up to 256 GB), 13MP rear and front camera and 3090 mAh battery.