- 2018-10-18
Nokia 3310 brand re-emerges
Finnish technology company HMD, the new owner of Nokia's mobile phone business, launched a series of Nokia branded mobile phones at the 2017 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona held at the end of February. In addition to Nokia 3, Nokia 5 and Nokia 6, HMD will also focus on nostalgia, launching the global explosive Nokia 3310, which came out in 2000.
According to the British "Independent" and other foreign media reports, the Nokia 3310 is priced at only 59 euros. It is defined by HMD as a backup model that can be activated when the smartphone is out of power, and at the same time caters to the consumer needs of buyers with a nostalgic attitude. .
According to the description on the foreign shopping website, the relaunched Nokia 3310 will have clock, calculator, memo and game functions. Of course, the famous "Snake" game will most impress people. This game was in the limelight before smartphones took over the world, and it is still memorable to players around the world. Currently this game has been upgraded and can be downloaded and run through Apple, Android and Microsoft systems. That year, Nokia successfully replaced the previous global hit model 3210 with the 3310. The characteristics of this mobile phone that impress consumers around the world, in addition to "Snake", also include long standby time, durability and particularly strong features.
In September 2013, Nokia announced that it would sell its deteriorating mobile phone business to Microsoft. But Microsoft also failed to turn Nokia Xianyu over, so it had to be a "setter". In May 2016, Microsoft sold Nokia's feature phone business to HMD and Foxconn's subsidiary Fujikang. After obtaining the authorization, HMD can produce a new generation of Nokia brand mobile phones and tablet computers, and has the right to produce Nokia brand smartphones and tablet computers in the next 10 years.
The old model has become one of Nokia's "magic weapons" for returning to the market. Prior to this, the Nokia 215 had come out again. This phone was also famous at the time. The reason for its success was that it could stand by for 29 days. Currently, the price of this phone is 29 euros.
Nokia was the dominant player in the global mobile phone industry from 1998 to 2011. After failing to develop a hot-selling smartphone, Nokia was overtaken by Apple and Samsung. After the spin-off of the mobile phone business, Nokia focused on the telecommunications service industry and also completed the merger with Alcatel-Lucent. It is reported that in 2016, Nokia's revenue was 23.945 billion euros, a year-on-year decrease of 10%.
HMD was founded in May 2016 and is headquartered in Finland. The executives have a strong Nokia background: HMD CEO Arto Nummela joined Nokia as early as 1994, and followed Nokia to Microsoft, and now he started his own business; HMD CMO Pekka Rantala has also worked at Nokia for 17 years, and once served as the CEO of "Angry Birds" developer Rovio. In this startup with only 500 employees, 70% of the employees come from Nokia.
It can also be understood why Nokia will now safely license its "NOKIA" brand to HMD for 10 years. After all, everyone is their own. Of course, there may be another meaning: Nokia now concentrates on the field of telecommunication system equipment, and its biggest opponent in this field is Huawei. If you can add a little trouble to Huawei's mobile phone business through HMD, why not do it? In this way, Nokia let HMD be a Nokia mobile phone, which is quite a bit of encircling Wei and saving Zhao.
The question is how can such a small startup company leverage such a heavy mobile phone business? At this time, another key player came out, and it was the foundry giant Foxconn. In fact, the development and production of HMD's Nokia smartphones are led by Foxconn, and even the chairman of HMD Samuel W. L. Chin is also a former Foxconn executive.
In addition to deep involvement in Nokia's smartphone business through HMD, Foxconn also acquired Nokia's feature phone business from Microsoft last year. In this way, it is actually very clear: HMD and Foxconn formed a consortium to take over Nokia's mobile phone business. Among them, HMD is in the front, mainly responsible for branding and marketing; while the latter, R&D and manufacturing are all handled by Foxconn.
This also reflects the ambition of Foxconn boss Guo Taiming, who is no longer satisfied with the pure foundry business for a long time. In recent years, Foxconn has moved towards more valuable ODM and even brand business by acquiring some assets of Sharp and Nokia.
Test the waters in the Chinese market
At the same time, it is equipped with the HMDs of Nokia, Foxconn and JD.com, and previously launched its first Nokia-branded smartphone "Nokia 6" based on the Android operating system in the Chinese market. The launch of "Nokia 6" marks the return of Nokia-branded mobile phones to the consumer market. HMD said that the purpose of introducing Android smartphones to the Chinese market is to meet consumer demand.
"Nokia 6" caters to the needs of modern consumers for smartphones, equipped with a 5.5-inch full HD resolution display, a new generation of Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 processor, 4GB of running memory and 64GB of storage space, and a 16 million pixel rear camera And 8 million pixel front camera.
From the specific configuration point of view, in addition to the earlier support of Android 7.0 in China, other aspects of Nokia 6 are all good, especially the Snapdragon 4 series processors, which has attracted collective complaints from many enthusiasts. The price of such a mobile phone with not outstanding configuration is set at 1,699 yuan, and the main line is probably not so easy. You know, Redmi phones with similar configurations have been sold for less than 1,000 yuan. In the online market, which is very cost-effective, it doesn't work to rely on feelings alone.
However, now and then. When Nokia's mobile phones flourished in the Chinese market, the main competitors were Motorola and other multinational companies. The four major domestic mobile phone manufacturers of "China Cool Alliance" have not yet risen. Today, China has become the most competitive mobile phone market in the world. There is no one. Local manufacturers such as Huawei, OPPO, and vivo are already dominant. Even Apple and Samsung, the two dominant mobile phone manufacturers in the world, cannot make it into the top three in the Chinese market. And mobile phone manufacturers like TCL/Alcatel that perform well in Europe and the United States, their models that perform well in Europe and the United States, are not competitive at all when they get it in China. Now, why does HMD think it can do better than Apple, Samsung, TCL/Alcatel?