HMD Global renamed the social handles and website of Nokia to Human Mobile Device (HMD), indicating the launch of HMD-branded smartphones is near. The renaming hinted that HMD might stop launching smartphones under the Nokia brand. However, this might not be the case as a recent report by 91Mobiles Hindi has exclusively revealed that HMD Global will continue to debut smartphones under Nokia branding while launching HMD-branded models.
The report reveals that HMD Global will soon debut three smartphones under the HMD brand, which are expected to debut at the MWC 2024 event, according to previous leaks. HMD Global executives previously confirmed that smartphones will debut in the first half of 2024, with India as a priority market.
With this, Nokia will continue to exist. HMD Global holds the licence to debut smartphones under Nokia branding until 2026. The forthcoming Nokia smartphones are set to be exclusive to offline markets while the HMD smartphones will be primarily focused on online customers. This will certainly impact the pricing of phones under both HMD and Nokia and the former could be more “value-for-money.”
It is said that the Finnish brand will debut an affordable smartphone priced between Rs 10,000 and Rs 15,000. The brand will not debut a smartphone exceeding the Rs 40,000 price segment in the country. The upcoming smartphones are said to debut in bright Blue, Green and Pink colourways and could come to the Indian market in April.
The new strategy could help Nokia establish a strong presence, especially in the Indian market. The brand has existed in around 200 countries with over 400 million Nokia users ever since HMD took over Nokia back in 2016. It remains to be seen how this affects the brand and whether or not it ends up catering to more people.
Additionally, HMD Global will also open multiple HMD Global-branded service centres across the country alongside the launch of HMD-branded smartphones in India. The report suggests that HMD Global has already begun research regarding setting up service centres.
