Global mobile giant Nokia is in a bit of a quandary in India. While Nokia CEO Olli Pekka Kallasvuo announced in New Delhi that India is the second largest market for Nokia after China, Nokia has been hit by the battery. Ever since Nokia came up with an advisory on the BL-4C battery, television channels have been focussing on exploding batteries.
In the process, TV channels claim that 10-12 handsets have exploded over the last couple of weeks. Surprisingly, in no other country do we have exploding batteries. While Nokia India's Shivkumar has taken pains to point out that the exploding batteries are fake, the pressure is immense. After all, it is the largest multinational in India. It is estimated that 85 million out of India's 192 million mobile users are using Nokia.
Though the advisory was for a certain 46 million phones that were sold all over the world, people queued outside outlets in India to replace their batteries. Shivkumar points out that 25% of the people who had the problematic battery have got a replacement. The balance will get it in the next fortnight.
While everyone has debunked the conspiracy theory, one thing is sure: demand for phones of rival vendors seem to have gone up.
So where does that leave Nokia? It is not really hit simply because this is for the first time ever that any corporation is replacing any part in its products in such large volumes in India. The next few months will show the impact of the battery advisory.
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