HMD has big plans for itself - as well as Nokia and more

The company that for years now has been making Nokia branded Smartphones and Feature phones has come off the back of it’s first year of profitability to announce a huge change and potential growth with a true multi-brand strategy ahead, while in Barcelona for Mobile World Congress EFTM checked out the plans for HMD in 2024

While Nokia will continue to be part of the HMD strategy, “Human Mobile Devices” will go it alone alongside that and other brands.

Launching later this year, HMD’s own phones will likely be a mix of Smartphones and innovative new phones such as the HMD Fusion – teased today – which is a device aimed at a developer community and B2B base with the ability to add almost any accessory to the phone through a software and hardware developer kit.

Ideas for the Fusion included Barcode Scanners for retail, or Health Monitoring Devices, extended batteries, payment terminals and much more – HMD is hoping the business and development community come forward with ideas for that device.

This new direction for the business continues to focus on the repairability and sustainability play which has been core over recent years, but is only really possible due to the success of the Nokia brand relaunch those seven years ago, Jean-Francois Baril – HMD co-founder and Chairman explains “In our seven-year journey, collaboration and support has allowed us to achieve so much. And we have plans to do so much more as we introduce the world to the new HMD. We want to be a catalyst for positive and profitable change by embracing a multi-brand strategy: crafting new HMD original devices, creating Nokia phones and collaborating with well- known global partners.”

Repairable phones were a core part of the offering in 2023 with one in four HMD/Nokia smartphone sales in 2023 repairable devices, and given HMD’s research shows 66% of people in the UK live with a smashed screen, this repairability play has strong marketing potential for the company.

For upcoming devices, HMD plans to make repairing screens easier, dramatically reducing the number of steps it takes to repair the screen – James Robinson from HMD says “One year ago, we introduced our first repairable phone to a great response. 12 months on, we are determined to continue to push the boundaries to reimagine repairability. As more and more people seek out easy to repair devices so they can keep their phone longer – and save hassle or delays when fixes are needed – we’re excited to make that process as easy as possible, starting this summer.”

While HMD has always been the business behind Nokia Smartphones since the relaunch, it’s clear now HMD wants to stand up as a brand of it’s own, and step out of the shadows of Nokia to expand it’s business further. This will see other brand partnerships as part of that growth, including one of the world’s most iconic brands in the middle of this year – Lars Silberbauer, Chief Marketing officer of HMD says “Our commitment to human-centred innovation has spurred our expansion, unlocking new prospects for us and our collaborators, and has been a driving force behind our adoption of a multi-brand strategy. We take pride working with remarkable partners and are excited about extending our collaborative efforts with dynamic new partners like Mattel. Barbie and HMD are on a mission to shake things up with a new flip phone coming this summer”.

Additionally, as if to put fans of the Nokia brand at ease, HMD teased an “iconic” Nokia device as part of the 2024 roadmap.