If you’d been waiting for a Nokia 9 PureView successor with a near-stock Android experience, then you’ll be disappointed as HMD-led Nokia will not make flagship smartphones anymore.
The Finnish smartphone maker, that is the licensee of brand Nokia, has said that it has decided to focus on making affordable and budget Android phones instead of getting into a spec war with other phone makers.
In an interaction with AndroidAuthority, Adam Ferguson, HMD’s Head of Product Marketing, Global, has said that the company feels that “Making an $800 phone doesn’t make sense for us at the moment.” He added that the company is “no longer interested in chasing the flagship crowd, a suspicion we’ve all had for a long time” and that HMD doesn’t “want to get involved in a massive spec war with other players.”
This though confirms the reason why the company hasn’t been launching premium and affordable premium phones for some time. In fact, the company’s executives had avoided answering the question in various press briefings as well as exclusive interaction that TechRadar had with them in the past.
While the company is not entirely cancelling the plans of making flagship phones, however, it seems that HMD is aware that this is not its cup of tea at least as of now. It has its task cut out and the company aims to become a leader in the US prepaid mobile market by the end of the year.
What we can understand from this interaction is that we can only expect feature phones, entry-level and mid-range Android phones with a clear focus on build quality, long battery life and a secure near-stock Android experience.
Why is HMD finding it difficult to make premium phones?
Since HMD is using Nokia branding for the phones – it works both in the favour as well as against the brand. While the phones are easier to recognize and the brand name is familiar, there is extra baggage of the Nokia of yesteryears.
The phones made by the company in its heydays were arguably the best in the market and while the current lineup of phones can’t compete with some of the lesser-known Chinese smartphone makers let alone competing with Samsung and Apple.
Since the pandemic and the subsequent chipset shortage has impacted brands like Google forcing them to re-calibrate their launch plans, the situation for smaller brands like HMD is far trickier.
It not only needs to stay relevant by launching phones regularly while competing with far more aggressive phone makers but also needs to ensure that it remains profitable at the same time.
This can be only achieved if the company curtails its portfolio and focuses on its strength i.e. making no-brainer phones at an affordable price point - after all remaining afloat is way more important than launching flagship devices.
Hence, HMD is now focusing on the range of devices that have raked in numbers and helped it gain operational profits during the testing times.
But it won’t be easy here as well
While HMD has decided not to compete with the big-wigs, it will face stiff competition at the affordable end of the price spectrum – especially from the Chinese phone makers.
The competition here is intense as you have multiple sub-brands of each company launching a phone every alternate day in a bid to grab that extra bit of market share. And to outdo the competition, they rely on aggressive pricing for premium hardware and look to make money with the help of customized Android skin – both aren’t HMD’s forte.
While we have examples of BlackBerry, LG and HTC who once ruled the smartphone industry but were soon kicked out of the market owing to this competition, we also have Motorola as an example that HMD can follow. Moto, after its comeback, tried multiple things including a foldable phone, however, soon realized that it needs to focus on basics. The company did exceedingly well by focusing on affordable phones for an extended period and is now back to the flagship game.
Hopefully, HMD can replicate the same and who knows we might be in for a surprise. Till then, keeping my fingers crossed.
