HMD Global’s new Nokia X20 smartphone.
Ryan Browne | CNBC
LONDON – The company behind mobile brand Nokia refreshed its smartphone lineup on Thursday with a slew of new budget models as it struggles to compete with established players such as Samsung and Apple.
Finnish start-up HMD Global has been licensed to design and sell Nokia handsets since it bought the mobile phone division of Microsoft’s telecom group in 2016. Since then, the company has released several smartphones and “dumb phones” – including updated versions of nostalgic devices such as the 8110 “banana phone” and 2720 flip phone.
On Thursday, the company announced six new smartphones. They are divided into three different series: X, which is at the top in terms of price and specifications; G, which is slightly cheaper than X; and C, the cheapest of the bunch. Prices start at 75 Euros ($ 89) for the Nokia C10, while the Nokia X20 is the standout device of all six, with a retail price of 349 Euros, or about $ 415.
For that price you get a 6.67 inch screen, four cameras on the back with a 64 megapixel main lens and the possibility to connect to super-fast 5G internet. The X20 and the cheaper X10, priced at $ 309, are both powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 480 5G chipset, run on Google’s Android operating system and come with three years of security updates, as well as a three-year warranty – more than a year. offered by the G and C series.
The X20 also has a “dual sight” feature that allows you to use two phone cameras at the same time to capture different angles from a shot.
Using the dual sight camera feature on Nokia X20.
Ryan Browne | CNBC
For sustainability reasons, no charger is included in the box, but a fully compostable box instead. The phone will ship in Europe next month, with US availability yet to be revealed.
Intense competition
Nokia is struggling to gain significant traction in the smartphone market due to fierce competition from Apple, Samsung and Chinese players such as Huawei and Xiaomi. This is a problem faced by stubborn manufacturers such as Sony and LG. The latter, once a top Android brand, said it was leaving the smartphone market earlier this week.
“I think it will remain very difficult for (Nokia) to compete in the highest portfolios in the market – that’s why they are now targeting lower price points,” Francisco Jeronimo, associate vice president for European devices at market research firm IDC, told CNBC.
“On the other hand, they have worked pretty hard to penetrate the B2B (business-to-business) market, which is a very good opportunity for them as there aren’t many players offering an attractive portfolio.”
According to data from IDC, Nokia smartphones only accounted for 0.6% of the market last year and shipped fewer handsets than LG and China’s Honor. However, HMD has done well in feature phones – aka “dumb phones” – with a 16% market share in 2020.
HMD hopes to expand into business sales and new services to find other sources of income. The company, which is financially supported by Nokia, Google and other major investors, launched a SIM card with global data roaming called HMD Connect last year. It managed to break even after prioritizing online sales in the coronavirus pandemic.
HMD is also launching a new mobile network in the UK called HMD Mobile. It will operate as a mobile virtual network operator or MVNO, which means it will be dependent on the network infrastructure of another telecom company. Bundles start from £ 6.50 ($ 9) per month. It won’t launch with 5G right away, but the company said it is working to make the service “5G ready.”