The Head of Product and Operations, Sub Sahara Africa, HMD Global, Patrick Henchie serves the African market from the Republic of South Africa. In this interview, he speaks about his company’s mobile phone portfolio and how they have diversified from feature phone to smartphones within a short timeframe. Excerpts ….
Footsteps in the Nigerian market
I remember the launch event we had in Nigeria a little over a year ago, and I have been back since. It has been amazing to know what’s going on in the market, to realize the brand love for Nokia. And we are really excited about how Nokia pure secure and up to date smartphones has been accepted in the Nigeria market. I think we as Nokia Mobile producing Nokia 6, it’s always key sticking to our basic principle of pure secure up to date android technology for everyday life and designing craftsmanship. We have seen the market grow. We have continually introduced new devices over the last year. We have raved up our portfolio to keep up to date with market trends and what is required. And it’s really exciting time to be in Nigeria and, indeed Africa at this time. You probably already know that our three key markets in Africa are Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa and we also distribute into other market in Africa.
Launch of HMD Global’s first Nokia phone and place of feature phones
Our first phone was launched in January 2017 in China, and it was the Nokia 6. It was a very exciting day for us and the rest of the world. The announcement was made at the mobile world congress same year.
We were still selling Nokia feature phones. But, it’s just over a year we have been selling our pure secured up to date smartphones in Nigeria.
Present position on feature phones segment in Nigeria
We are still very much in that segment. It’s still a very key part in our business and what we are looking at is that is building a portfolio that we can always service any comfortably. So now we have got a wide portfolio rather than just having one device for one individual. So all the way from Nokia 1 to Nokia 5 which is a voice focus device all the way up to Nokia 8.we really feel like we can afford the entire market and there’s also opportunity with our connectivity devices which is our Nokia 250, Nokia 3310. It also provides the users the opportunity to move into entry level smartphone and with that opportunity we have the Nokia 1 in the market.
Ambition to grow in the feature phone segment or ….
The feature phone segment is key to growth in our business. We see them as a very important part of our business. This year we announced 8110 4G which was a feature and smartphone that was also part of our originals. We reloaded the old Nokia 8110, so we are certainly committed to the feature phone space.
Product in the Nigeria market presently
Our products in the Nigeria market are Nokia 1, Nokia 2.1, Nokia 3.1, Nokia 5.1, Nokia 5.1 plus, Nokia 6, Nokia 6 and we have Nokia 7plus.
Marketing strategy and product available in Nigeria
We work through partners and in Nigeria we have our local team based in Lagos that help us serve the Nigerian market.
Frequency or regularity of updating OS on Nokia smartphones
That is a really important story for us, what we are bring to the market is the pure version of android, and our promise to the customers is that, we will have monthly security update coming through to the devices and we have a range of devices that are part of android-one program, from Nokia 3.1,Nokia 5.1, Nokia 6 and Nokia 7plus are all part of the android-one program, and we are also committed to platform update as well, so many of those devices will get update and the key there is to keep the devices relevant. You don’t want a situation where you buy a device and in 3 months your handset is outdated and that is why we have made conscious decision to commit to those update and we feel it’s very important for the users to get the monthly security update to ensure their device is secured and up to date.
Impact of Nokia 3310 on smartphone
I was there at the mobile world congress when Nokia 3310 was launched; it was really great to be there and see the excitement around Nokia 3310! Certainly, it brought back a lot of nostalgia for people bur in terms of overshadowing I wouldn’t call it overshadowing smartphones in anyway. I think it will be helping to bring focus to the fact that at HMD Global, we are bringing Nokia phones to the market and it allows us to tell a great story around our new smartphone range. So it was really an exciting product, really exciting to be part of it, but it also really allows us to tell people the story of the pure secured up to date Nokia android smartphones.
Progress from a feature segment to smartphone segment
That speaks to the Nokia brand heritage of always being able to supply devices to full range of or full portfolio and a range of devices. We are very much about catering to a wild range of end users and the way we have done this in progression is very simple. We are known for reliability, and in our feature phones we are known for quality and actually what we have done is we’ve taken that recipe and replicated it with the smartphone segment, where we have really reliable devices. The Nokia design has always played a key role in our devices. So it is really about making devices that can be used in everyday, better screen and good battery life that can get you through the day, those are kind of key elements we focus on for smartphones. And what has happened is that people have started to understand and I will say that quality is long game. For people, once they use their devices, they are getting security updates, they are getting their platform updates, so Nokia quality comes through every time and we will continue with that formula going forward. That shows the way we have progress from dominant in feature phone to growing in the smartphone space.
Do you make market specific devices?
We do have some regions where we have market specific devices. For example, at the moment in China, we are selling the Nokia H5, Nokia H6 which are particular to the China region.
Why is this so?
There are different market dynamics and different drivers in each market, so we will always look to see if a device suits a market and if it does, we will drop it for sales there. But it is also about catering to that local market needs and we will investigate and bring the device into the market. And also, there’s the different band to entry point of view, so we also need to take that into consideration.
Efforts at delivering pure android experience
We have conducted a lot of market research. We have spoken to a lot of consumers and a lot of customers. And one of the key things that came through from the conversations was that people want something simple, something uncluttered. Again, looking at the amount of work Google has put into android over the years there has been many alterations, where a lot of devices are all running on android, it was the perfect time for us when we came into the market to bring to the consumers the pure clean uncluttered user experience exactly the way Google intends it to be without any third party applications. We gave the users the choice of the applications they want to use on their device. Once we did that, we ended up saving some space for the users to enjoy. So the users are in complete control of their devices.
Commitment to monthly security update for Nokia Mobile devices
In the world we live today, there’s a lot of focus put on security and people want to trust that they are secured Nokia has always been at the forefront in the delivery this.
Willingness of HMD Global to stand alone
Nokia started working with Zeiss in 2002, they could add something to the devices and it has really been a privilege to work with them again in bringing a great camera experience to users of Nokia phones. With the android branding at the back of the devices, which is an extra assurance to customers that your device is part of the android-one program, which we are committed to the security updates and platform updates. All these show that we are committed to giving you the absolute and best android experience on our device. So I wouldn’t say it is not standing on our own, essentially, it’s about celebrating our partnerships and the company is happy to work with us.
A bit more about android one
Clearly, when we came into market with our devices, we had the pure secured and always up to date android one of our distinguishing factors. Probably, we were the first company to make this commitment to the security update android. Android-one is a program by Google which manufacturer can sign up to with a commit to having a pure and clean user interface with a commit to the security update. We are proud to be part of the android-one program and it sort of show our commitment to the security update.
On limited number of pre-installed app
You can look at pre-installed app in different ways, but our policy on this is essentially that the devices come with the apps exactly how Google intends it. It has the Google services pre-loaded on each device. We also do have a Nokia support application where customers can interact with our help team in case anyone has challenges with the device. But other than that, there are no other third party applications on the device, but you get to choose what app you want on the device and what you want to download from the play store.
Strategy for Nokia to reclaiming the number spot in the market
We will stick to our, trusted smartphone that people can rely on. We will stick to using technology in everyday life. We will stick to using quality materials. We will also stick to the pure secure and always up to date android. It’s very easy to get cut up in a ‘spec race,’ where people just talk about the biggest or the amount of mega pixels. I think the Nokia magic is how we use the screen, how we use the processor, how we optimize the battery to give the absolute best overall user experience to the consumer.
Any new device in the Nigerian market soon
We did have something for you guys, the Nokia 6.1 plus is in Nigeria and it’s about to go on sale. We are very pleased to announce that it will be available for #95,000 and this is testament to the fact that if we launch a device in one region we can bring it to other markets. So it almost identical to Nokia H6 that’s on sale in China that have some of the features and we are very happy to bring the device to Nigeria.
Nigeria’s ranking when HMD Global is releasing products
If we do a regional approach, Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa all ranked equally as we launch our products.
