HMD Global launched a few new phones for the Indian market this week, called the Nokia 6 (2018), Nokia 7 Plus and Nokia 8 Sirocco. These phones were first unveiled at MWC 2018 late February and the company has now brought them to India, which happens to be among the first markets to receive the new Nokia phones. This tells us that for HMD, India is still one of their top priorities and that hasn’t changed, and the company reiterated the same at its recent event.

Last year, HMD revived the Nokia brand, introduced some new phones and established a base. And it was a pretty good 2017 for the company, capturing 1 per cent of the market share in Q4 and selling close to 10 million units during the year. As far as comebacks are concerned, that’s pretty positive and not a lot of companies can boast of such numbers in their first year. This year, HMD is looking to expand its portfolio and take things a step further and Pranav Shroff, Director, Global Portfolio Strategy & Planning, HMD Global told me what the company’s plans are for the year and what it hopes to achieve with its new lineup, among other things.

“We wanted to use the last year to set a foundation in multiple areas,” Shroff said. The company did this by focusing on three areas – strong distribution system, building a care network to address consumer grievances, and the Make in India initiative whereby all Nokia phones sold in India are assembled in India. This, he said, has helped the company set the groundwork and its now time to start building.

India is a hyper-competitive market, there’s no denying that, and the bulk of the competition resides in the budget and mid-range segments rather than the premium sector. Which is why HMD’s goal was to start from the ground up. “We wanted to make sure we get the devices right for an important market like India. If you look at the devices we started with – the Nokia 3 to Nokia 6 – all of them sat between Rs 9,000 to Rs 15,000 where a majority of consumers buy in the country.” He adds that the company did not enter the Indian market with a flagship because it wanted to work its way up from the bottom.

Then came the Nokia 2 which was an even cheaper offering and was a product based on what the consumers want. When it came to the Nokia 2, Shroff said, two things became important – display and battery. But the Nokia 2 didn’t provide the exact experience that the company wanted to deliver, which is why it is now looking positively towards the Nokia 1 with Android Oreo Go Edition. The Nokia 1 takes things to an even lower price point and he sounds confident about the devices success. India will be the lead country for the Nokia 1.

“We have set the fundamentals.” Now, the company wants to expand, which it hopes to do so with the Nokia 1, Nokia 6 (2018), Nokia 7 Plus and Nokia 8 Sirocco. “We still have a way to go,” he adds knowing that the HMD’s work has just begun. The company with its current portfolio is aiming to cover every segment between $75 to $750. “Imagine if you could have an offering for every consumer out there”. This is what the company is building to and hopes to achieve in the near future. In India, the Nokia 1 is the company’s most affordable product at Rs 5,499 while the Nokia 8 Sirocco is its most premium offering at Rs 49,999. In between, you have every other Nokia smartphone launched in the past one year. The goal is to create a diverse portfolio so that there is a Nokia Android smartphone for everybody, Shroff says optimistically.

The Nokia 8 Sirocco may not be its 2018 flagship phone but it is the company’s most premium Nokia smartphone to date. One can say that the phone stands as a testament to what the company has been and what it can achieve. Inspired by the good old Sirocco of old, this is a special edition Nokia 8 that pushes the boundaries of design. The Nokia 8 Sirocco is a looker and any die-hard fans envy. So I wondered whether pricing it at Rs 49,999 may have been a little too ambitious.

“The flagship space is a small space,” he said. “I believe the real flagship is at the price point where we have announced the Nokia 7 Plus.” The company knows that the 7 Plus and cheaper Nokia phones will sell the most numbers, but that doesn’t mean the 8 Sirocco is any less important. “The Nokia 8 Sirocco is a product that you may or may not buy, but it is something that you will look at and go wow. And that has a very important role to play.”

It is clear from what Shroff said that more than anything else, the Nokia 8 Sirocco is about showing to the world that it can deliver in the flagship space. The phone is about pushing the boundary by going with 95 per cent glass all around, stainless steel chassis, wireless charging, a pOLED display that bends around the edges. And despite providing last years Snapdragon 835 chipset, Shroff says the chipset has been optimised to give the best performance.

He also makes things pretty clear and simple for consumers looking to buy the Nokia 7 Plus or the Nokia 8 Sirocco. “If you are a consumer who wants a fantastic performing device, with flagship quality performance at a great price, I would sell the Nokia 7 Plus to you, but if you want a true design masterpiece then I would push the Nokia 8 Sirocco.”

“I have a keen eye on the competition and market dynamics,” Shroff said when I asked whether the company at this initial point is focusing on competing against other brands or against itself. “Our relationship is with the consumers, and we do not look at the competition to define what we do.” While most players are focussing on online sales, HMD has tried to create a strong offline distribution because it believes a majority of the market still resides offline.

I wrapped up my interview by trying to sneak in a question that is perhaps on a lot of people’s minds – whether we can expect future Nokia phones to sport the notch. Now that the Nokia 7 Plus has come with an 18:9 display, will HMD look to push it even further and take the path many other Android OEMs are doing lately? Of course, I wasn’t expecting a clear answer, but Shroff did say that the company is “definitely not close to it,” although he did add that if it does make sense to add the notch the company might just do that in the future.