Today, Nokia and HCL Infosystems jointly announced a long-term distribution strategy for further developing the rapidly growing Indian mobile phones market. As a part of this announcement, Nokia, the world leader in GSM phones, has extended its distribution agreement with HCL for the next several years. Nokia and HCL Infosystems have also decided to develop a go-to-market strategy to jointly address the coverage needs of the urban and widely dispersed rural areas.
Commenting on the consolidation of its relationship with Nokia, Ajai Chowdhry, Chairman, HCL Infosystems said, “The business dynamics have undergone a sea of change since the inception of our relationship with Nokia. India has crossed the 100-million telephone mark to become the fifth largest telecom network in the world after China, the US, Japan and Germany. The growth of this sector will result in the entire country carpeted by telecom network and all the villages connected. As a result, the next wave of growth is expected from smaller towns & remote locations. Today’s announcement is a big step in this direction.
In the last ten years, while the HCL-Nokia relationship has witnessed strong growth in the Indian GSM handset market, there is increased need for a distribution network that will meet the projected market growth of 200 million subscribers by 2007, vs. 75 million at the end of 2005. The announcement today, reaffirms Nokia and HCL’s commitment to the growing Indian market, to ensure that mobile devices are accessible to more consumers in cities and towns across India.”
Sanjeev Sharma, Managing Director, Customer and Market Operations, Nokia India Pvt Ltd, added, “In order to address the challenges of the growth and increasing geographic spread of the Indian market, it is important HCL and Nokia utilize their existing infrastructure and resources in the most efficient manner to serve consumer interests.
Nokia has no current concrete plans of appointing a second regional distributor in India at this stage for GSM mobile devices. Nokia & HCL Infosystems have built a strong relationship over the last 10 years, and have constantly worked together to grow the market & provide customers with state-of-the-art mobile communication devices. Becoming an industry leader in India is a testimony to our robust relationship”.
Fact-sheet on HCL-Nokia Relationship
· HCL – Nokia have created a multiple level distribution network consisting of a large number of redistribution points.
· HCL has also established over 150 Nokia Care Centers managed by HCL and franchisee operations, considering to be the best customer care network phone in India.
· HCL-Nokia care operation is ISO 9001-2000 certified by BVQI.
About Nokia
Nokia is a world leader in mobile communications, driving the growth and sustainability of the broader mobility industry. Nokia connects people to each other and the information that matters to them with easy-to-use and innovative products like mobile phones, devices and solutions for imaging, games, media and businesses. Nokia provides equipment, solutions and services for network operators and corporations. www.nokia.com.
About HCL Infosystems
HCL Infosystems, India’s premier information enabling and integration company offers its customers technology solutions across multiple platforms. It has partnerships with some leading global player like Intel, AMD, Toshiba, Ericsson, Microsoft, Nokia, Apple and Zee among others.
HCL Infosystems has direct customer services center across 300+ locations and two ISO 9001 certified state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities. With a mission to provide world-class information technology solutions and services to enable its customers to serve their customers better, HCL Infosystems is forever setting new standards of IT in the country. For more information please visit www.hclinfosystems.in
About HCL Enterprise
HCL Enterprise is a leading Global Technology and IT enterprise with annual revenues of US $2.9 billion. The HCL Enterprise comprises two companies listed in India – HCL Technologies & HCL Infosystems. The 3-decade-old enterprise, founded in 1976, is one of India’s original IT garage start ups. Its range of offerings span Product Engineering, Technology and Application Services, BPO, Infrastructure Services, IT Hardware, Systems Integration, and distribution of technology and telecom products. The HCL team comprises of 32,000 professionals of diverse nationalities, who operate from 15 countries including 300 points of presence in India. HCL has global partnerships with several leading Fortune 1000 firms, including leading IT and Technology firms. For more information please visit us at www.hcl.in
