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Nokia is confident about taking on Apple and Samsung
HMD Global’s CMO believes that it won’t take Nokia more than 10 years to outsell Apple and Samsung.
Nokia and nostalgia go together. The brand that introduced the mobile phone to millions, faded away, came back, faded away again and came back again is on a high.
When Microsoft acquired Nokia in 2014 and was forced to scrap it, Nokia’s obituary was sealed – or it seemed so. But two years later Microsoft sold the brand. It was a complicated transaction.
The phone business was acquired by a subsidiary of iPhone manufacturer Foxconn for $350 million. The licence to sell Nokia phones was bought by HMD Global. To complicate matters still further, Nokia Technologies continues to operate as a standalone B2B company with a focus on new technology including 5G and high-end virtual reality cameras.
HMD Global was formed by former Finnish Nokia employees with the sole purpose of bringing the brand back to the mobile phone market. HMD recently launched the first flagship Nokia device since the deal: the £600 Nokia 8 smartphone. It received rave reviews. But does Nokia stand a chance against biggies Apple and Samsung.
HMD’s chief marketing officer Pekka Rantala believes that it can do so in under 10 years.