Nokia 8 to be manufactured in India, focus on offering ‘meaningful technology

Nokia 8, the newly launched flagship smartphone from HMD Global will be manufactured entirely in India. HMD Global has partnered with Foxconn for the manufacturing

Nokia 8, the newly launched flagship smartphone from HMD Global will be manufactured entirely in India. HMD Global has partnered with Foxconn for the manufacturing, though the company didn’t confirm where exactly the phones were being produced for the Indian market.

“All of the Nokia manufacturing is done by Foxconn for HMD Global. All of the phones are being manufactured in India from Nokia 3310 to Nokia 6, 5, 3 and the Nokia 8 as well,” said Pranav Shroff Director, Global Portfolio Strategy and Planning at HMD Global. He pointed out that HMD Global India head Ajey Mehta and the business team took the conscious decision to manufacture all their phones in the country. “This (manufacturing in India) has been happening since the beginning and we intend to continue this,” he added.

HMD Global also announced a concierge service for the Nokia 8 flagship smartphone. This service will be operable in top 50 cities of India. So if there is an issue with the device, someone from Nokia Care will come pick up the device straight from a user’s home. After the device has been repaired, it will be dropped back to the user’s home again.

On the Nokia 8 launch and whether the company had done any optimizations on the phone for the India market, Shroff said that while all of their products are global ones, the device has been tested extensively for India. “We tested extensively with all the network operators. Of course, India has some of the most difficult network operator conditions and we make sure the device works well, giving users a reliable battery life,” pointed out Shroff.

While HMD Global didn’t share any numbers on the sales of the Nokia 6, 5, 3 and Nokia 3310, Shroff said the response has been “fantastic” in both offline and online channels and they were “humbled by the response.” When asked about the premium segment and how Nokia 8 would stand out against the competition, especially in a segment which is so small in India, HMD Global’s Director said their focus was on “meaningful technology.”

“We are not spending time talking about the screen size or camera megapixels, but rather the experience that it can offer,” he said. However one of the criticisms for Nokia 8 since has been that the company launched only one SKU with 4GB RAM and 64GB storage on board, instead offering higher storage variants. Also reports have indicated HMD Global could launch a higher RAM variant with 6GB RAM and 128GB storage.

While Shroff refused to comment on the speculation of a higher variant, he added the company was confident they will provide the best experience to users with the 4GB RAM version. “Be it battery life, performance, content creation, all of this is delivered well on the Nokia 8. Also as a consumer you won’t know where every part of that 4GB RAM is being used, and at the end it is just a number,” said Shroff.

Nokia 8 is priced at Rs 36,999 in India and will go on sale from October 14 on Amazon India and other offline retail channels. HMD Global has adopted the online and offline channel path for sales of its phones, though the Nokia 6 is an online exclusive smartphone.