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HMD Global that sells Nokia brand of smartphones has said that the company will enter its second phase of growth next year, and India being an important region some of the global launches will be from here.
The company is not only looking at offline retail stores for selling its products, but also online market places since millennials buy from these platforms.
“We are gearing up for the next phase already. India was, and is, a key market for us and looking forward it is going to play a crucial role in our growth story for the years to come,” Florian Seiche, Global Chief Executive Officer, HMD Global, told BusinessLine in an interview.
That is the reason the company launched two models on Tuesday — Nokia 6.1 plus priced at ₹15,999 and Nokia 5.1 Plus — which are breakthrough devices for the youth. Both the models will be available only via online marketplaces (Nokia and Flipkart).
While Nokia 6.1 Plus will be available from August 30, Nokia 5.1 Plus will be available from September (price to be announced then). “In the offline world, we already have a great muscle (with around 1.10 lakh retail stores across India), so now we are focussing on the online space targeting the millennials, who are buying online. Therefore, we are using these platforms to reach to the millennial consumers ,” Seiche, said.
He said the company was so far (in the last one year) building the entire portfolio with major price points, and now was the time to pick a couple of ‘key breakthrough devices’ to make big impact in terms of market share.
Market share
Asked if the company can achieve 5 per cent market share by 2020 (from around 3 per cent now), he said Nokia can achieve such target much sooner.
“We are looking to become one of the top five or three player in India, and five per cent (market share) could be achieved much sooner (before 2020) ... think that is a good target,” he said.
HMD Global sold more than 700 million mobile phones last year and the company in May announced a further investment of $100 million, from which India has also got significant amount for expansions, Seiche added.
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