Did someone order fresh Nokia Phones? Yes, we did. This week at MWC, HMD revealed their new Nokia phones.
We had a chance to sit with Mr. Sanmeet Kochhar, GM – Middle East to talk about what is HMD planning with this lineup and also his take on phones with notches.
Q: How important is the UAE market for Nokia?
A: We believe that the UAE is one of the most important markets globally for Nokia. Smart penetration is one of the highest here. Nokia is one of the most loved and trusted brands and in UAE specifically, we have very strong equity. In very little time in the launch, we have made big inroads and Nokia fans are loving our devices. We are now available with all online retailers and over 2000 independent stores.
Q: Where do you see the future of Mobile Photography?
A: First of all, imaging is a very important feature which is very close to our fans. At one point in time, we came up with Dual side mode where you can use the front and rear camera at the same time which was an innovation at that time. Now with Nokia 9 Pureview, we have amazing image capabilities at multiple levels. First is we are using 5 lenses (3 monochromatic and 2 RGB) for capturing information and light. And this is the first time that 5 lenses are being used at the same time. The second thing is the software which is processing such high volume of information and being able to process all of that information which is incredible.
Q: Notch or No Notch?
A: My personal preference, be it a notch or no notch, I like big screen experience. But my favorite has been the fact that the software continues to get better. I have been using Nokia 8 which recently got upgraded to Android 9 Pie and it feels like I have a new device. It is a very different device with all the AI based features. For example like the adaptive battery, my phone knows which application I love and when I am using 7 or 8 applications, it figures out my favorite application and other applications can stop using battery so much. This whole fact that software continues to get better and I am confident that going forward the way artificial intelligence and machine learning is moving I know that my device is future proof in terms of the software.
Q: How do you think feature phones will be able to compete with the big players in the market?
A: Feature phones have their own place in the overall scheme of things. There are over 1.3 Billion feature phone users globally. In the UAE market alone there are a lot of people with feature phones for a reason that battery does not last on a smartphone beyond a point. So if you are going somewhere for a weekend and you can carry a feature if you want to just make calls or send text messages. We have also seen that someone buying a low-cost smartphone there can be a lot of issues in terms of the phones hanging because of low configuration or the price of the internet data and feature phone comes in handy at that point.
Q: Which device you think would be the best seller for Nokia?
A: Different shoppers/people look for a different thing in their phones. The Nokia 9, of course, has its innovation and industry-leading in terms of imaging and software process. So it will get its own attention. But the innovation that we have on the new Nokia 3 (3.2) and 4 (4.2) in terms of the big screen experience, the notch experience and the fact that it has 2-day battery life. With the Nokia 1 plus, the fact that it has 5.45” screen and also has three slots so if you can use two sims along with micro SD card. If you remove the cover, you can use a different cover and it becomes a very different device. People still believe that all android phones are the same in all the devices at all the price points which is not the case especially now that we are moving in the era of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.
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