Rs 46,999 is a good price for the Lumia 1520: Nokia MD P Balaji

Finnish mobile manufacturer Nokia has seen some ups and downs in India in the last few months. The spectacular launch of the Nokia 105 in September that sold one million units within the first month of release was tempered with tax fraud allegations from the IT department and legal hurdles to the completion of Nokia’s acquisition by software giant Microsoft.

While launching the latest of Nokia’s smartphones - the Lumia 1520, the company’s India head, P Balaji, discussed why the company is bullish on its India future.

According to Balaji 2014 will be an exciting year for Nokia because the numbers predict that 50 million smartphones will be sold next year in India, he told ET. Add to that Nokia’s tie-up with Microsoft and their combined services and products give him much to look forward to. 

On being asked about the logic behind the pricing of the Lumia 1520 (at Rs 46,999) Balaji said he was confident of the consumer research done before the launch, adding, “EMI is obviously a standard for high-end devices that helps in sales. We will strengthen our partnerships with top retailers for such phones. It happened with all other models such as Lumia 920, 1020 and we are paying more attention to high-end smartphones.”

When he was reminded by the Hindu Business Line that Nokia had only a 5 percent share of the Indian smartphone market, Balaji replied saying,“When you establish a new ecosystem, you have to be patient and give time and for us, we are on the right track. The year 2014 is when more innovations will happen and drive more acceptances for these devices.”

Moving on to feature phones, Balaji said the company is trying to lure customers to buy the low-end devices in the hopes that two or three years down the line they might want to upgrade to the Lumia  smartphone series. He added that Microsoft decided to acquire Nokia and continue to use its name because these devices become a ‘consumer connect’ by introducing users to services like GPRS and building a base.

Balaji was diplomatic about the tax-hold up that plagued the Nokia-Microsoft deal until recently. Saying a core team has been set up to ensure a smooth transition in the first quarter of 2014, he said the team wants “…to make sure that folks down the line can focus on business continuity, the market and consumers.”