Nokia phones will return in the fourth quarter of this year

Not long ago, Wang Jianya, president of the joint management team of Nokia Networks China and Shanghai Bell, announced to the industry the return time of Nokia-branded mobile phones - the fourth quarter of
this year.
And, after the expiration of the contract with Microsoft, Nokia mobile phones will return
in the form of brand licensing.

In May, Microsoft sold Nokia's feature phone business to Foxconn and HMD in Finland for $350 million
.
Foxconn acquires Nokia's factory assets and patents, and HMD acquires brand operations and patent rights
.

However, Nokia's return to the smartphone market, not optimistic, because the fact is there, the fierce competition in the smartphone market has no place for Nokia, and most of the domestic and global markets are already red seas
.
IDC data shows that in the second quarter of 2016, Huawei, OPPO and vivo accounted for 47% of the domestic mobile phone market, while Apple, which ranked fifth, only occupied 7.
8% of the domestic market share
.
Although Nokia's technology patent strength is still strong, from the development stage of smart phones to the mature stage, Nokia is basically absent, which leads to the result that Nokia's smart phone products may be difficult to match user needs, and its manufacturing and design thinking and industrial design in the field of mobile phones may also be behind the times
.

Before Nokia was acquired, we saw that the software and hardware experience of Nokia's smart phone products was worse, and it was probably Lumia's industrial design that came out
.
In fact, this is because the advantage baggage of the Nokia feature machine era is too heavy, resulting in every step in the smartphone era is full of pain and discomfort, because from the essence, Nokia lacks the genes
of smart phone manufacturers.

Therefore, since Nokia has too much advantage baggage in the feature phone market, Nokia may wish to take advantage of its strengths and avoid its weaknesses and start with a feature machine, which is easier to revive its brand value
.

Because for Nokia, the current favorable environment is that the scale of the functional machine market is on the rise, and there are more and more users who are tired of smartphone aesthetics, which stems from the unprecedented popularity of the smartphone industry, and many people miss those simple and simple feature machines
that only have daily practical functions.
In addition, in the emerging economy of the Indian market, functional machines still occupy the mainstream, in China, compared with smart phones, consumers such as the elderly may be more familiar with the use of functional machines, and also have certain emotions
.
In China, many users also have a nostalgic complex: the feeling of typing through the buttons of the function machine has not been experienced for a long time
.

Even Microsoft's earnings report released in the first quarter of this year showed that Nokia feature phones outperformed its smartphone sales, according to Microsoft's Q1 2016 natural quarter financial report, a total of 2.
3 million Lumia smartphones and 15.
7 million feature phones
sold.
Among them, the sales of Lumia mobile phones fell by 73%
year-on-year.
The data shows that Nokia feature phone sales are 7 times
higher than its smart phones.

In addition, market research agency Gartner also estimated that the global mobile phone market sales in 2016 will reach 1.
9 billion units, of which there are still 300 million to 400 million functional phones, the main market is in emerging markets
such as India.
If Nokia can win the vast majority of the market share of the feature phone market, its number cannot be underestimated
.

Foxconn's acquisition of Nokia obviously sees Nokia's brand and manufacturing advantages
in the field of functional machines.
On the one hand, as a mobile phone foundry giant, Foxconn's feature phone orders are decreasing, but they have not stopped
.
In addition, in the future, Foxconn will obviously also participate in the manufacturing, research, development, technical cooperation and distribution of Nokia-branded smartphones and tablets
.
Third, the three words Nokia still have a huge brand residual value in the world, and this residual value is associated with functional machines
.
Therefore, it is wise to first bring Nokia back to the mobile phone market by selling feature phones
.

But to do a good job of functional machines, in fact, in the current era, it is not too easy
for Nokia.
Because Nokia launched a functional machine today, its design thinking obviously cannot be the same as in that year, because today's user taste and aesthetics and the innovation expectations of functional machines are greatly improved, on the one hand, it is necessary to make the functional machine design in line with the current user's taste and personalized differences, and it is necessary to be comparable to the current smartphone experience in terms of intelligence, but also to not lag behind the trend, it is possible to impress users, which is very difficult, but Nokia obviously has the object of learning, that is, Japanese functional machine manufacturers
。

We know that Japan's smartphone penetration rate has been low, and previous data showed that the proportion of smartphones in Japan was only 39%, and feature phones have returned to light in the past two years
.
In fact, this is not because Japan's smart phones are underdeveloped or technologically backward, but on the contrary, Japanese people are good at learning and making localized improvements and innovations
according to their own national habits.

In Japan, the reason for the popularity of feature phones is that many mobile phone users prefer the most realistic physical feedback
of typing on the keyboard.
The Japanese traditional keyboard mobile phone has supported many functions of the smart phone as early as the stage when the smart phone is not popular
.
At present, Japanese feature machines continue to evolve, and the use of apps that consumers like is customized
.
Not only can the cover be flipped but also swiped up and down, these phones can also accept TV signals, they can also receive information
from TV stations.
Even Japanese feature phones have functions that smartphones do not have, and these functions are well suited to the needs of
their local users.

For example, KDDI, one of Japan's three major operators, sells a very large number of Garake mobile phones, the so-called garakei mobile phone, means that no matter how mobile phone IT technology in the world develops, and Japan independently develops its own characteristic mobile phone
.
KDDA has partnered with Sharp to launch AQUOSK, a high-end LTE mobile phone
equipped with LTE, quad-core processor, touch-enabled, APP-running, and capable of supporting Japan's most important information software line.
The appearance of this type of mobile phone is a feature phone
with a clamshell.
It is reported that the Japanese even made the iPhone into a flip phone, and its appearance design is quite stunning and refreshing
.

In addition, Japanese feature phones have a good experience in downloading APP or searching, shopping, email, music, reading, social login and many other aspects, and Japanese feature phone game customization services are very developed, basically meeting the general needs of Japanese mobile phone users for mobile phone intelligence, the development to the present, Japanese feature phones have in fact evolved to a very high level, and smart phones are not much
different.

We see that Japanese feature phones are not far behind, they have the experience of smart phones, but also integrate the advantages of touch screen and keyboard, and have their own characteristics
.

This is actually worth Nokia's reference, there is no doubt that Nokia returns to the mobile phone market, need to have a clear brand identity, compared to the market homogenization of the increasingly serious smartphone market, traditional feature phones have its characteristics, flip cover, side sliding cover and other shapes are different, especially Nokia's previous many feature phone design is ingenious, worth collecting
.

However, for Nokia, if you want to spread the sales of functional machines globally, in addition to considering the ease of use of simple and convenient feature phones, the difficulty lies in how to integrate traditional keyboard or clamshell design with intelligent experience like Japanese feature machine manufacturers, and have both nostalgic tone in appearance and meet the personalized aesthetic tendency
of current users.

As mentioned earlier, the Japanese feature phone integrates the physical appearance of the functional machine and the traditional keyboard operation, but it has the core of the smart machine, and the general operation and function of the smart machine can basically be realized, so this characteristic feature phone in Japan can be said to be not lost to the smart phone to some extent, and it is very in line with Japan's local national conditions and user habits, and the appearance is fashionable in line with the aesthetics of Japanese users, but this is Nokia's weak point, and it was also mentioned earlier that Nokia mobile phones are very bad in intelligent experience, Its original failure also includes product strategy and product appearance errors, which is why the author recommends that Nokia learn from Japanese feature phones, of course, this is also the direction
that Nokia feature phones need to catch up and improve in the future.
This is also the reason
why Japanese functional machines still occupy a certain market share in Japan and have survived steadily.

However, according to previous news, Nokia's product strategy after its return is to enter the high-end
.
Obviously, this is Nokia's lack of deep understanding of its own shortcomings and strengths
.
Previously, some insiders believed that with the help of Foxconn's foundry supply chain, the high-end positioning of about 3,000 yuan can still be supported
.
But whether the foundry advantage can add a question mark to the Nokia brand, because HTC is actually a lesson
from the past.
However, it is also reported that HMD has revealed to the Indian media that it will first bring Nokia back to the mobile phone field
by selling functional machines.

Therefore, Nokia's strategy should be to design differentiated subdivided mobile phone products from its own advantages and do a good job of a spare feature phone, rather than focusing on the market share
of smart phones 。 Because, from the current point of view, even if Nokia joins the Android camp, it is very difficult to get a piece of the pie, smart machine hardware technology has developed to a very mature stage, the fight is fierce, the market is saturated, whether at the software and hardware level, talent reserves, channel marketing and smart machine research and development capabilities and many other aspects, Nokia has basically lost its advantages, and the brand owners of functional machines, Samsung, Sony, Moto, LG and even Gionee have basically transformed into smart phones, The saturation of the smartphone market has turned the functional machine market into a blue ocean
of unmanned competition.
Therefore, this is also a big plus
for Nokia's return.

To sum up, Nokia wants to return, may wish to learn from Japanese mobile phone manufacturers and focus on the localization and personalized needs of users, do a good job in the integration of functional machines and intelligent experience, so that Nokia can still survive, if Nokia insists on doing high-end mobile phones in the Android system, there is basically no way
to live.