Troubled Finnish handsets makers Nokia has something to cheer about as far as its China story is concerned. In GSMA Mobile Asia Expo in Shanghai, Nokia has talked about progress of its apps offering in China, as the company attempts to return to its former glories.
Speaking in the second keynote session yestserday, Nokia’s president of Asia, Olivier Puech, claimed that Nokia already offers 35,000 apps from its China Marketplace store, as well as 5,500 local apps. Puech said this growth is off the back of the launch of a Windows based Lumia smartphone in China at the end of March.
Puech added that Nokia is looking to partners as a way of keeping costs down for consumers. “Affordability is very important. In China we have worked with local partners such as Tencent, to provide cheap phones with instant messaging. 50 million devices in China are powered by Tencent’s instant messaging service.”
Meanwhile Puech sees location-based services as an area in which Nokia can excel. “75 percent of the population will be living in cities by 2050 so consumers will want to be connected all the time,” he noted.
Like India, Nokia is well-accepted brand in China because of variety of economical and top-of the range models available. Nokia can cater to all segments of the market and unlike other markets, Nokia is able to sell good numbers of its handsets in China despite tough competition from world-renowned Android phones and local phones.
