VietNamNet Bridge - Sources all say that Nokia has been hurrying to employ and train workers to prepare for its return to Vietnam.

Nokia has officially confirmed that it will return to the smartphone market, two years after the Dutch conglomerate sold Lumia to Microsoft because it could not compete with Apple and Samsung.

Under an agreement signed between Nokia Technologies and HMD Global Oy, a newly set up business in Finland, HMD Global will develop and make products bearing the Nokia brand, from feature to smartphones and tablets.

HMD stated it will spend more than $500 million within the next three years to support marketing activities to popularize Nokia products all over the globe.

In Vietnam, zing.vn has quoted sources as reporting that Nokia has been quietly recruiting workers and carrying out training campaigns, preparing for the re-appearance in the market of two feature phone models to be launched by the end of the year and two Android smartphone models by early 2017.  

HMD stated it will spend more than $500 million within the next three years to support marketing activities to popularize Nokia products all over the globe.

In fact, feature phones with the Nokia brand have never disappeared from Vietnam. Microsoft still keeps some models in the market. When Lumia 930, its last smartphone model, was marketed in Vietnam in 2014, some phones were no longer sold. 

In July, the representative of Microsoft which is now holding the right to exploit Nokia brand, will transfer the right to HMD Global. It had a meeting with FPT Trading, a large distributor in Vietnam.

According to zing.vn, Microsoft’s feature phone factory in Bac Ninh province has fallen into the hands of FIH Mobile, a subsidiary of Foxconn, the partner which assembles components for Apple and Nokia. The factory may produce the two new Nokia models, expected to debut this year end.

Who will Nokia compete with in Vietnam?

The Vietnamese mobile phone market in the first half of 2016 was dominated by Samsung which accounted for 34.7 percent of market share. The second position belonged to Oppo with 21.8 percent of the market share, according to GfK. 

The third position belonged to Apple with 9.8 percent. However, analysts commented that the figure cannot reflect the real position of Apple in Vietnam because it only shows imports through official channels by authorized companies, while it does not count the products brought to Vietnam across border gates by dealers.

An analyst commented that what Nokia can expect in Vietnam is ‘heritage from Microsoft’. Meanwhile, according to GfK, Microsoft’s market share has shrunk from 20 percent to 4.7 percent. Though this is a modest figure, it is high enough to put Nokia in the second group, capable of competing with Samsung, Apple and Oppo.

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