Whereas other current market leaders had long come up with smartphones when emphasis shifted to data services, HMD Global, the home of Nokia phones, in December 2016 acquired the right to design and market a range of smartphones and improved feature phones.
Though the products targeted consumers at various salutary price points, no doubt, they arrived the scene at a time several brands had saturated the global smartphone market, thus penetration was stiff due to what observers described as lateness to the market after all. This was the findings of investigations by Business Hilights Intelligence Unit (BHIU), the business intelligence arm of Business Hilights publications.
BHIU further revealed that “The forces of innovative complacency and delay to some extent by the Finnish firm in not following up the global trend in phone use revolution after the high sales of its feature phones including Nokia 3310 and others before 2016 cost Nokia huge loss of global followership especially in emerging markets like sub-Saharan Africa and Nigeria in particular”.
However HMD Global, new managers of the Nokia brand, says it will continue to leverage on the strategic sub-Saharan African market to push and recapture a huge market share in the mobile phone industry.
The Business Manager, West Africa for HMD Global, Mr. Emmanuel Ossai, said just like Nigeria and South Africa, Ghana is a key market for Nokia and that is why HMD Global is working to provide the local consumers the devices that are useful to them.
Explaining issues before Business Hilights Ghana Bureau chief and other journalists in Accra, Ghana, he averred that the company was overwhelmed by the kind of responses it received from fans around the world, especially in Ghana following the launch of Nokia 6 in China.
The technology giant sold 70 million phones globally in 2017, scaled sales operation across 80 countries with activation from about 170 countries of which Ghana is a major area of focus.
He said HMD Global, official licensee for Nokia phones, is committed to providing devices that attend to the needs of different customers across different price segment.
Ossai further confessed that the company is also working assiduously to recapture the market share and ensure sustainability of the brand with the newly designed models to woo the taste of users.
He also agreed that Nokia, which operates in eight regions, including Sub Saharan Africa, has faced stiff competition as older users of the brand had shifted loyalty to the use of other smart phones.
