Thailand's mobile phone industry is the largest value market in Asia-Pacific outside China thanks to consumer spending, says HMD Global, the producer of Nokia phones.
"Thailand is one of the significant mobile phone markets in the region for the Nokia brand as the market value reaches US$5 billion [156 billion baht] a year, 90% of which is from smartphones," said Sandeep Gupta, regional general manager for Thailand of HMD Global.
Innovative features with attractive price points are key factors encouraging user demand in mature markets.
HMD aims to be among the top 2-3 producers in the global smartphone market over the next few years.
"We hope to see similar success in Thailand," Mr Gupta said.
To achieve the goal of being a leading smartphone brand, Nokia is targeting younger users, influencers and early adopters.
A strong partnership with Google, Qualcomm and Foxconn allows Nokia Android phones to update security faster and have an easy-to-use premium design.
Thais were surveyed as spending the most time on smartphones at 167 minutes, followed by laptops, tablets and TV at 96, 95 and 78 minutes, respectively.
Smartphones need to have long battery life and powerful processor speeds in such a culture, he said. To capitalise on this opportunity, HMD introduced three new smartphone models: Nokia 1, Nokia 6 and Nokia 7 plus.
In 2017, the company was the No.1 feature phone in the global market in terms of value and among the top five smartphone brands in 15 markets globally, while operating in 80 countries. HMD has over 250,00 retail outlets globally, with 600 direct operators and retail distribution partners.
In a related development, Vivo Thailand also introduced new mid-priced smartphones targeted at teenagers.
Boonchai Wattananimitporn, product manager of Vivo Thailand, said the company will introduce two models every year and tighten the brand marketing budget as its brand has established itself over the past few years.
The company will focus mainly on mid-priced smartphones (10,000-17,000 baht), which it finds attracts 70-80% of new buyers in the replacement market, particularly youth.
"Vivo was targeted at workers, but we have shifted to teenagers as they are early adopters," he said.
Visitors throng at Thailand Commart Connect, a fair to showcase computer devices, mobile phones and gadgets that is being held until Sunday at Queen Sirikit National Convention Center. PORNPROM SATRABHAYA