In an interview, HMD Global’s Vice President India, Ajey Mehta has revealed release timelines for Nokia 3310 and Nokia Android Phones Nokia 3, 5 and 6 in India. Nokia 3310 will be launched in May 2017, while Nokia 3, 5 and 6 will be launched in end of May to early June.
“We are looking to launch [the Android phones] starting from end-May to early-June,” says Mehta, though the new 3310 could here sooner. “The 3310 we’re still finalising the dates, we’d like to launch before the smartphones but it’s not yet confirmed,” he adds.
What also is significant is that there are plans to manufacture these phones in India, but it has not been finalized yet.
“The plan is to have all the phones manufactured in India and we are working with Foxconn to make that happen,” says Mehta. “If they are not able to ramp up it could be from Vietnam or China, but ideally it would be made in India.”
Coming to retails channel strategy, it seems some of the phones may be sold online exclusively while others may be sold just offline exclusively. Though this may not apply to all phones.
“We will pick the channel that reaches the consumer, and that is the millennial,” he says. “So we will have a channel agnostic strategy, we will go online, we will go offline, as far as possible, we will ensure that the products are mutually exclusive.”
“It’ll be on a product-by-product basis,” explains Mehta, instead of the entire line of smartphones or feature phones being limited to a channel. With demand for Nokia phones expected to be high, no decision has been made yet if the online platforms will follow the flash sale model, Mehta added. But to better prepared for the demand, the company is carrying out market research right now.
“We are doing all the analytics involved in arriving at the number that will be most accurate, and working on our go to market plans,” says Mehta. “We are also preparing our whole logistics setup, and we’ve changed our own strategy, selling directly to redistribution-stockists, instead of a single national distributor which was the case until December. This brings us closer to the market, the industry tends to change so fast. Having fewer layers gives us a faster response time.”
Plans to ramp-up the after sales services are also afoot.
“We are also ramping up aftersales service,” he adds. “By the time we launch our smartphones we expect to have a physical presence on the ground in 250 towns, with aftersales service presence. One of the most important parts of the value proposition is the aftersales service.”
Read Nokia 3301 2017 Full specs, features, price here
Read Nokia 5 Full specs, features, price here
Read Nokia 6 Full specs, features, price here
Read Nokia 3 Full specs, features, price here
Read comparison between Nokia 3, Nokia 5, Nokia 6 here
