Nokia focusses on North-East for ‘faster growth’

  Mobile phone-maker Nokia, which re-entered Indian markets in June last year, is looking at a “faster growth” in the North-East. Apart from leveraging its brand recall, Nokia is ramping up the portfolio spanning all price points (across feature and smartphones) as its USP in the region.

Typically, the North-East includes Assam, Tripura, Manipur, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Meghalaya and Sikkim.

According to Amit Goyal, Business Head, North and East, HMD Global — makers of Nokia phones — the company is already ramping up its distributor network there with focus on smaller towns.

While in Guwahati (Assam) alone it has some 20-odd distributors, the other major State capitals and larger towns where it has a presence include Imphal (Manipur), Dimapur (Nagaland), Agartal (Tripura) and Shillong (Meghalaya).

Among the smaller towns, the company has its own distributor even in Tura in Meghalaya (a hilly town and a municipality in the West Garo Hills district of the State).

Apart from State capitals, the other cities / towns of the North-East where Nokia is witnessing good traction include Jorhat, Silchar, Dibrugarh and so on.

“Growth in the North-East is expected to be faster than rest of the country. We saw a near 5x growth in the country last year and a good traction in the North East too,” he told BusinessLine .

Research firm Counterpoint maintains in its March 6 report that Xiaomi has been the country’s largest smartphone brand with a market share of 25 per cent, Lenovo (including Motorola), Oppo and Vivo each have a 6 per cent market share. Korean brand Samsung has a 23 per cent market share.

Pushing smartphone

However, market sources say that Samsung is amongst one of the stronger brands in the North-East, apart from Chinese ones like Vivo, Oppo. Other brands like Motorola and Mi also have a significant presence. Nokia already claims to be among the top few brands when it comes to feature phones being sold in NE. Brands like Itel, Micromax, Samsung, Lava and Intex are the other leading feature phone brands there.

So, it is no wonder that Nokia will target these feature phone users as a probable customer for its range of smartphones.

It is also eyeing a significant chunk of users from Indian brands. Market sources say consumer trust and premiumisation of portfolio continue to remain two main challenges for most Indian phone-makers. Hence, there remains a scope for a “quality player” to step in.

In fact, according to another research firm Gartner, smartphone shipments declined in Q4 of 2017 because of a slow-down in upgrades from feature phones to smartphones. Lack of quality in “ultra-low-cost” devices and users preferring to buy quality feature phones were two prime reasons. And this is exactly what Nokia may target with its entry-level smartphone being priced at ₹5,499.

“There is a certain amount of trust associated with the Nokia brand which we will look to leverage,” Goyal said.

Incidentally, the second phone syndrome will also be targeted by the company with its offerings. Accordingly, being a “full range player” – with offerings across all price points — will help it cash-in on the segment. Additionally, a strong mid-range portfolio (₹8,000-₹18,000) is also an added advantage, sources say.

COMMENT NOW