HMD Global Wants To Make India Production & Export Hub For Mobile Phones

HMD Global, maker of the Nokia brands of mobile phones, aims to make India a manufacturing hub for its phone exports.

“Our aim is to have India as a manufacturing hub for exports. And we will also do smartphones once the products are launched across the world. Currently, we are exporting from India to the Middle East but the scope will only expand,” Business Standard quoted Ravi Kanwar, vice president, India & APAC of HMD Global, as saying.

This comes just days after HMD Global launched its own brand of smartphones in India, including Pulse, Pulse Plus and Pulse Pro.

The company began exporting its Nokia 105 Classic feature phone to the Middle East and Africa over the past six months, shipping 6 Mn phones to these regions during the time period.

Now, it wants to export the smartphones under the HMD brand name from India, too.

While HMD Global sells its smartphones across Kenya, Australia, China, Europe and the US, India remains the biggest market for its handsets.

In 2023, it captured a nearly 15% share of the domestic feature phones market, whereas its share in the overall smartphone market in India was a mere 0.4%, as per the report.

And now, with the launch of HMD brand smartphones, it wants a bigger share of the plate.

HMD Global makes nearly 100% of its phones sold in the domestic market in India through partnerships with local players like Dixon Technologies and Lava, as per the report.

The company tapped the two partners because they are beneficiaries for incentives under the country’s production-linked incentive (PIL) scheme for mobile phones.

The development comes at a time when India is emerging as a smartphone manufacturing hub, with companies like Apple, Samsung, Oppo and Xiaomi expanding their manufacturing operations in the country.

Apple already manufactures its flagship iPhone devices in India. In fact, 1 out of every 7 iPhones is made-in-India. It was reported earlier iPhones accounted for 65% of all mobile phone exports from India in the fiscal year ended March 2024 (FY24).

For the tech giant, India has become a financial bonanza, with Apple posting double-digit growth in the March quarter, beating all previous records. 

Meanwhile, Alphabet’s Google has also announced plans to produce its flagship Pixel 8 smartphones in India. The tech giant aims to produce over 10 Mn units locally by the end of this year.

Last year, it was also reported that Xiaomi supplier Dixon was planning to set up a manufacturing plant near Delhi.

Recently, Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said that India produces 99% of its total mobile phone demand locally.