Nokia is focusing on regular software upgrades and design with new Android smartphones and isn’t solely interested in hardware specifications, HMD Global’s Chief Product Officer Juho Sarvikas revealed at the sidelines of Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, Spain. While speaking to journalists on Tuesday, Sarvikas said how the Finnish phone maker is looking to differentiate its upcoming product lineup with an impressive build quality, regular software updates, and a high level of attention to detail. This strategy will be applied to the majority of products Nokia announced at MWC 2017, including the Nokia 3, Nokia 5, and the Nokia 6, the company’s executive revealed.
The only exception to the philosophy outlined above is the Nokia 3310 (2017), a refresh of a 2000 feature phone which is “less of a rational product,” Sarvikas says. Despite the fact that a revised version of the Nokia 3310 seemingly isn’t fully compatible with Nokia’s new product strategy, it is understood that the Espoo-based company still opted to release it due to the fact that it is a relatively low-risk investment. While elaborating on his comment about the attention to detail paid to every upcoming Nokia model, Sarvikas used the Nokia 6 Arte Black as an example. The anodization of every single unit takes approximately 18 hours, after which the phone is polished exactly 10 times, Nokia’s Chief Product Officer revealed. This is the kind of commitment to details that the company is hoping will resonate well with consumers.
The company’s executive also said how it’s possible Nokia will release region-specific variants of its phones with upgraded hardware specifications in certain territories, but added how no decisions on the matter have yet been reached. Finally, Sarvikas said how the company’s short-term goal is to get their upcoming Android devices in enough hands to get people to start remembering the things they’ve loved about old Nokia phones. Every aspect of Nokia’s new product portfolio was carefully designed to benefit the consumer and anything that was deemed redundant or unnecessary was scrapped, he said. To illustrate that point, Sarvikas revealed how Nokia was developing a proprietary Android launcher at one point but decided to stick with stock Android because it was unable to come up with anything that would benefit the end user. More details on the company’s new Android-powered product portfolio are expected to follow in the coming weeks.