Nokia Follows Xiaomi's Trail To Win India Smartphone Market

HMD Global revived the Nokia journeying in 2017 with a heavy dose of nostalgia and a rather streamlined portfolio of phones – the Nokia iii, Nokia 5, Nokia half-dozen, and Nokia viii. Almost all these devices were well-received in the market place and it showed Nokia's salience equally a brand.

Dorsum then, I expected the brand to maintain its lean smartphone line-upwardly, just apparently, it had another plans. HMD Global started dropping multiple smartphones in and around the aforementioned price segment, making it difficult to keep a track of its production direction and the pricing puzzle. Information technology's an oddly familiar feeling – the aforementioned ane we go from Xiaomi and its smartphone lineup.

Nokia Looks To Follow Xiaomi's Trail To Conquer India Smartphone Market — Durgesh Kukreti | Beebom

There's a Redmi Telephone For Everyone

Xiaomi, as we all know, is always doubling down on the success of its Redmi seriesthat are usually priced betwixt Rs. 5,999 to Rs. 12,999. Believe it or not, there are as many equally 12 Redmi phones on sale in India, including different storage and retention variants for each. And that's of course without because other Mi devices and the new Poco F1.

There's literally no such thing as also many Redmi phones (at least that'southward what I call up), which sometimes brand me wonder if it will cannibalize Xiaomi's other phones.

While pretty much all the other manufacturers are following a more conventional strategy, HMD Global seems to exist riding the same horse.

Nokia'southward Odd-Ball Pricing

Allow's say you want to buy a Nokia-branded Android telephone under Rs. xv,999. Then y'all might be tempted to go with the Nokia vi.1 Plus because that sounds like an obvious option, right? But there's likewise the Nokia 6.1 which costs Rs. 500 less and offers a notch-less design (looks better in my opinion), Zeiss optics, and more than.

If you look closely, even other phones like Nokia 5.1 Plus, Nokia 3.one, Nokia three.one Plus, 2.1 and fall under the like odd-ball pricing. I believe even the Nokia 7.1 volition go far in Bharat equally a lucrative alternative to the Nokia 7 Plus very presently. So, unless you choose to pick upwards either the Nokia 8 Sirocco (which happens to be the most expensive Nokia phone on sale right now), there always seem to be another model in or effectually the same toll indicate and seemingly non too unlike either.

Look, I know it'due south always all-time to take a long listing of options. In fact, when I had a conversation with HMD Global's Global Caput of Portfolio,Pranav Shroff, about Nokia'southward recent launches, he said, "It's a happy trouble to have."He further defended the approach by insisting on how the portfolio targets a dissimilar audition (online and offline), etc. Nonetheless, I feel that a wide choice makes information technology tedious to make a decision.

If you are shopping for a telephone online and take, say, Rs. 12,000. Y'all'd be picking up a Nokia 5.1 Plus. Offline shoppers, on the other hand, would be offered the newly launched Nokia iii.one Plus. Yes, for the same price, you'll be offered a phone with less powerful internal. Information technology's a congested and equally confusing marketplace, in my opinion.

So, is Nokia actually following Xiaomi's trail to tackle the Indian market? Well, if you lot ask me, it seems very much like it. Xiaomi has one (or fifty-fifty more) phone at every cost point from Rs. 5,999 to Rs. 14,999. Of course, Nokia is not there withal, but it seems to be gunning for the same spot.

That beingness said, information technology is hard to contend with this approach, given that Xiaomi has managed to sally as a juggernaut in India and is off to a dandy start in the European market as well. So conspicuously, this non-conventional approach seems to be rewarding them. However, information technology remains to be seen if Nokia tin can use the approach to encompass the ground that information technology lost over the final few years.