Nokia bets on differentiation to crack Indian smartphone mart

You have become aggressive in smartphones by launching one handset once or twice a month. How do you plan to take this forward?
We are increasing both the width and the length of portfolio. It started before the Lumia range in 2011 and we have been adding devices one after the other. Now, we have a very strong portfolio of the phone devices in the market and these are growing from strength to strength. We have got a range of Lumia that is affordable with new and differentiating innovation to high-end price cost. We are creating our presence with the smartphones day by day with the new launches and newer innovations. It’s a matter of time that we had a full-fledged portfolio.

What are your plans to regain market share?
Basically, we are changing platform. Changing platforms is like changing cars and engine, so it is like starting from scratch. With the new devices, we are building a soft portfolio. What are we going to bring to India? What matters for us is differentiation, how we have clarity over our differentiators. We just don’t build a phone to build a phone. The phone has a purpose. The phone does something. We have to build a meaningful differentiation via experiences and customisation.

What had gone wrong with the company in the last few years?
I have been working in this company for the past 16 years and have seen a lot of changes and transitions in Nokia. I think in the last three years, Nokia has made its golden move. We saw an opportunity and decided to change tracks two-and -a-half years ago. It’s one the golden moves I have seen in Nokia. That move today is helping us sell more Lumia smartphones than BlackBerry Pearl smartphones.

You plan to launch colourful and funky looking devices. Is there a particular segment you are targeting?
That is part of the transition that we can show the differentiating features for our consumers. Differentiating development and experience includes differentiating design language. Our target segment is the youth. We have a differentiated target proposition that is the new design language – the colour and design story. There is a consistent colour story across our Lumia range of smartphones and Nokia accessories.

How many devices you plan to launch this fiscal?
We can’t disclose what we are planning. We have announced three phones globally – 625, 925 and 1020. So, we are talking about eight devices already announced, five phones commercially launched in H1 2013 which, I believe, is a good indicator of what we are planning.

How you will capture the market which is largely dominated by Android?
We are very consistent with our focused approach. Our approach is to create meaningful experiences and meaningful differentiation for our consumers. We are not crafting a product just for the heck of creating one, but are adding many differentiators such as imaging, music, navigation, plus a differentiated design language. So, this is our core focus and that is the reason we are selling more than BlackBerry. Nokia has really been with consumers for the last 20 years now. So, our consumer reports and insights into consumer behaviour help us understand them better and create differentiated and relevant products.

We figured what consumers want – differentiated design, outstanding portfolio, a great camera, a host of quality apps, great music because we are a music loving country – we have a huge catalogue to offer and the last count was 8 million. We also have a differentiated design, and finally, we have navigation with localised experiences like the one we have on our Asha series.

In fact, a recent study shows that camera, apps, music, social networking are the reason you buy phones today.