Company expects antiques will fetch better value and valuation
Bleeding by competition and consistent fall in market share, Nokia finally announced its revival plan which would fetch better price and demand for its mobile phones and would help it to tap a niche market. The announcement was expected as the company reported 3 times more losses in Q2.
"We shall launch new range of Nokia Lumia under antique category so that it would attract niche customers like antique collectors," said Nokia CEO Stephen Elop.
Sources said that Nokia's falling market share and its inability to catch up new technologies and innovations by its competitors led to make such strong decision.
"That is totally mistaken. Our decision is not related to our falling market share, but just fitting the right product to right customers. Our marketing team which was working on understanding the taste of the customers said that many customers more than 50 or 60 years age and antique collectors loved having Nokia phones for its simplicity. The team's survey says that these customers still remember Nokia 7110, 5110," told Elop to India Satire Correspondent.
Elop showed the correspondent his own Nokia 5110 which he uses for daily purpose despite so much of innovation happened in the mobile handsets.
"I myself like to gather old and antique products. Nokia Lumia is for me, or for people like my tastes. It would be totally with old features in a newly designed phone. Designs will be like iPhone but all the features inside that phone would be a delicate and beautiful remembrance of 1990s," said Elop.
While Stephen Elop avoided talking about the price range, he said "The price has not decided but we think that the product will fetch at least 4-5 times that of upcoming iPhone."
Talking about market dynamics, Elop said "Market is good. We expect a 5-10 thousand customers for the first year and 100% market share in the antique mobile phone category."
It was speculated that Nokia is also trying to get a status of World Heritage Mobile Phone maker, Elop said "Yea we are trying for that which would give our new phones special status and would finally help us to improve selling price."
