During the Mobile World Congress held in Barcelona, Nokia made a big comeback under its new company name and home of Nokia phones: HMD Global. It unveiled several of its latest phones and even made a bold move to bring back the iconic Nokia 3310 with a little dose of an upgrade. Leading the company is HMD Global’s CEO, Arto Nummela, who took time for a one-day visit to the Philippines to talk about their technology, business partners, plans, products and gather feedbacks for Nokia. Arto was an intrinsic part of the original Nokia team starting from 1994.
Present during the event are Shannon Mead (Country Manager, Philippines), James Rutherford (VP Asia Pacific for HMD Global), Flann Gao (Communications Director for HMD Global) and online media in a round table discussion.
Arto told us that the success and development of the new Nokia phones can be attributed to its business partners like FIH Mobile of Foxconn Technology Group, Google, and Qualcomm. Arto said that both companies are happy with the partnership.
On the design and features of the phones, Arto explains that they wanted a new approach on their devices as well as giving what consumers wanted on their phones. This is their top priority – to listen, to understand the consumers’ need and to stay true to what the Nokia brand is known for: simplicity, quality, user-friendly and reliability. This time around, they are starting to offer its consumers a pure clean Android experience present in all of their new phones. Nokia tried to make their previous devices under Microsoft but without the Google apps that Android users really wants and commonly used in other devices.
Another factor is security; all Nokia Android phones will receive a monthly security update. With the constant security update, this will ensure that Nokia phones will remain up to date, relatively secure and hopefully prevent hackers from taking advantage on your phone.
Next is quality, Nokia will focus on having its devices with premium quality and feel by using materials to the highest standards. Just like the Nokia 6 which is made from a solid block of 6000 series aluminum, after going through a series of process resulting in a beautiful, shiny, and durable phone.
Arto also cited their goals for Nokia, “The whole aim is between in the coming years we are going to be among the top player and that’s how we will start it. If we look and simply focus on few markets where we have the strongest Nokia fans like the Philippines, Vietnam, China and India. We couldn’t find a place in the world that’s not eager to try the Nokia. We have more than 120 countries now and we have more than 500 partners. Our aim is to be among the top player in the coming years.”
Arto disclosed that Nokia is gradually achieving this aim in being the top player again. When the first Nokia 6 was introduced in China it obtained a huge 1.3 million registered people on its first initial sale and some of the first batch was already sold out. Arto added that the success could be credited because of the emotional connection to the brand. He also said that 70% of their buyers are mostly young or the millenials of this generation.
“And you can pick whatever new player mostly coming from China, they have to invest a lot to get that brand awareness market by market. How much more do they have to invest to get awareness and not even getting that consideration but rather getting a question from consumers like–what is this brand?
“But for Nokia when it’s between 95 to 98 percent brand awareness already and the preference to buy was surprising. People said that if there will be Nokia again I would consider that. So right from that get-go there is a completely position for Nokia than any other brand. And then because this is not a trademark, there is emotional connection to the brand everywhere we go. And we are going to communicate that in a different way, we are not going to join like what others are doing. So we find a different approach than any of the other players are doing.” Arto said.
A preview of the Latest Nokia phones
One of the most anticipated part with Arto and his team is having a chance for the first time to see and try the new Nokia phones. They brought all the devices that where launched in Barcelona, the Nokia 3, Nokia 5, Nokia 6 and everyone’s favorite, the Nokia 3310 that will be coming out Q2 of 2017 in the Philippines.
The Nokia 6 sports an aluminum body with features such as a 5.5-inch full high-definition display, 8-megapixel wide angle front selfie camera and 16-megapixel main shooter, fingerprint scanner, 32GB built-in storage, 3GB memory and comes in 4 color variants. It also comes in an “Arte Black Limited Edition” version with a glossy black finish plus a bigger internal memory of 64GB. It is selling for an average global retail price of 229 euros.
Nokia 5 features a 5.2-inch high-definition display, 13-megapixel main camera and 8-megapixel selfie camera, 16GB built-in storage, 2GB memory, 3,000mAh battery and average global retail price of 189 euros. While the Nokia 3 sports a 5-inch HD display, 8-megapixel rear and front camera, 16GB built-in storage, 2GB memory and average global retail price of 139 euros. All of these phones are made from a 6000 Aluminum series with the Nokia 5 and 6 having a full metal body while the Nokia 3 on the other hand gets a polycarbonate shell on the rear.
Lastly, The iconic Nokia 3310 that we’re very excited to try and surely brings a smile in our faces. It has a 2.4-inch polarized curved screen, 2-megapixel camera with LED flash located at the back of the phone, dual sim, 16MB storage but has a microSD card slot supporting up to 32GB, and comes in a variety of colors Warm Red, Yellow in a glossy finish and Dark Blue and Grey in matte finish. It has 22 hours of talk time with a one-month battery life on standby. Average global retail price for the Nokia 3310 is set at 49 euros.
Arto says that some people will buy the Nokia 3310 as a second phone or the so-called “burner” phone to make calls longer and send text messages. It’s a way to get away from the tyranny of your other phones without totally disconnecting.
First Nokia feature phones coming to PH
Aside from the latest Nokia phones mentioned earlier, Shannon Mead announced that they are introducing another new set of feature phones from Nokia. The Nokia 105, 150, 216 and 230 will be available in retail stores this April in the Philippines.
The Nokia 105 gives you excellent call quality in noisy environments. And with space for 2000 contacts and the battery has 15 hours of talk time and good for up to 35 days standby time. With built-in flashlight and FM radio plus free games. The Nokia 150 has an impressive 2.4-inch QVGA screen, VGA camera with LED flash, built-in FM radio, games and battery life lasts up to 22 hours talk time and 25-31 days standby time. The Nokia 216 is almost the same features of the Nokia 150 but has a Opera Mini Browser that allows you access to popular web content. Battery life is up to 18 hours talk time, up to 24 days standby time. Lastly, the Nokia 230 has a 2.8-inch QVGA display, 2MP front and rear camera with an LED flash, a removable battery with 18 hours talktime and 27 days standby time.
To know more about these amazing feature phones go to www.nokia.com for more details.
