Bringing the internet to the next million people is the emerging challenge: Vice President - Marketing for IMEA Region - Nokia

Alessandro Lamanna is the Vice President - Marketing for the IMEA Region at Nokia. The IMEA Region includes India, Africa and the Middle East. Lamanna took over this role in July 2011. Prior to this posting, he has served as Vice President - Global Marketing for Nokia's Connected Entertainment and Community Portfolio and as Managing Director for Nokia Italy.
Before joining Nokia, Lamanna has worked with many globally renowned consumer brands including Johnson's Baby, ROC and Bud BirraPeroni. He received his MBA degree from the SDA Bocconi University in Milan.
BR Research: Nokia has been a late entrant in the Android/ smart phone market. In Pakistan, low priced cellular phones by Nokia are quite popular, but the Company's smart phones are largely absent from the local market. How will the launch of the new Lumia phones address this void?
Alessandro Lamanna: When we decided to switch from the Symbian platform to the Windows platform, it was a hard break and a conscious decision to invest in the future. The Symbian technology did not fail, but the market has evolved beyond it and the needs of smart phone users have pushed cellular phone manufacturers away from playing in the domain of that operating system. We did feel the impact of other Android-based smart phones entering the market, but Nokia is the world leader and will remain so for a long time to come.
The point is that if you talk about a flagship product that will define the future trajectory for the Company; the Nokia Lumia 920 is that offering. A quick review of independent product reviews on leading technology websites will reiterate this statement. The industry and users are recognising the strengths of the Lumia product range and that is testament that Nokia is on the right track.
Of course, the development of new technology takes some time and your competitors do not sit around and wait for you. But, this is the most futuristic platform on offer in the market, globally.
An overwhelming majority of computer users in the world are using the Windows platform so we are quite confident that our smart phones will only gain further traction and popularity among new and existing smart phone users.
BRR: In your opinion, how does the mobile phone market in Pakistan compare to other regional markets, in terms of penetration, development and future growth prospects?
AL: Pakistan presents a vibrant market with lots of room for growth and development. First, the size of the market is huge, with 180 million people expected to increase further at a rapid pace in coming years. Then there are many youth here, who are highly inspirational.
Thirdly, the coming of the internet and more recently, the growth in the use of social networking website such as Facebook and Twitter; has really changed the market dynamic. Lastly, there are many more potential users here that have not yet adopted smart phones and even among those that have; there is a high affinity for adopting newer technology. For these reasons, we believe that Pakistan will remain a key emerging market for Nokia for many years.
Our strategy is two-pronged here, so that we can capture both the high and low-end consumers. We already enjoy a very strong reputation among the entire spectrum of consumers in the country and we intend to leverage that strength to further expand here.
BRR: Although Pakistan has lagged behind in terms of mobile phone manufacturing, the country's IT sector is mushrooming. How does Nokia intend to leverage the emerging strength of software programmers and solutions providers in the country?
AL: We have launched two development plans in this realm in Pakistan. The first is a competition for software programmers; the other is the Imagine Cup that we have undertaken in partnership with Microsoft. We have more than 130 developers here, of whom 80 are very active on the Windows platform. More than 300 developers from various universities in the country are enrolled in our programme. They develop smart phone applications that are specific to the country.
From among them, the best applications are not just recognised as high achievers; we also help them commercialise these applications and support them through out the process from planning and development to marketing.
BRR: What targets have been set for the newest product offerings by Nokia in the domestic market?
AL: According to our research 30 percent of the market by value is already using smart phones in this country. Many of these consumers have been or are already users of Nokia phones. So, we are hoping to leverage that existing brand equity and brand loyalty to push our newest product offerings. The Nokia Lumia series is targeted at the mid to high-end consumer segment. The range is based on our commitment to zero fragmentation and zero compromise on service delivery.
Having said we have not set any targets in terms of the number of phones that we aim to sell here over the next month or year. We have a broader and more long-term strategy for expansion here, whereby we want to increase the number of smart phone users in the Country significantly. There is already a strong trend of more people adopting this technology. We want to be at the forefront of this move towards smart phone technology. As the market grows, prices will come down further, thus creating a virtuous cycle for further expanding the popularity of smart phones here.
We are working on other technologies that will help bring down prices of smart phones and also cut down the cost of using these. These efforts are aimed at bringing the internet to the next million users.