Interview with Ifi Majid, Head of Product Marketing, Microsoft Devices (Nokia)

iffi-majid

During the regional launch event of Microsoft Devices in Dubai just a day ago, we had a chance to interview Mr. Ifi Majid – Head of Global Sell-In and Customer Engagement, Product Marketing, Smart Devices, for Microsoft Devices Group (formerly Nokia Devices).

He’s the person who actually presented the devices Lumia 930 and Lumia 630 during the event. As the devices were launched and the availability of Lumia 930 is not too far as well as Lumia 630 has already been made available in the markets, we had our questions focused specially on the future of Microsoft Devices with new management and decision makers and the marketing strategies of their products.

The questions are not much in quantity as the time was not enough and we had to wind up in very limited time. Following goes the questions we asked along with the answers from the Ifi quoted.

iffi-majid-with-lumia-930

Q: You have been with Nokia for quite a long years. Do you think the management in the Microsoft will make healthy decisions (like Nokia had been doing with its hardware) to improve Mobile design and hardware as well?

A:Yes I think, like, clearly we are joining Microsoft to bring the mobile expertise. Look Microsoft launched Surface Pro 3, it’s a beautifully designed product. So these guys have got amazing capabilities in terms of design because the range of different devices, we also know how to design products. So bringing those two together, it’s gonna be super exciting.

Q:  There is a fact that everyone believes in the hardware Nokia has made for its mobile devices as well as their smartphones. I believe that fact and so do you. That’s a very simple and straight question! Do you think Microsoft would maintain that fact and have their customers keep believing that hardware and premium kind of devices.

A: The one thing that we definitely bring is mobile expertise. We’ve got all the heritage within that space and clearly design is something bring and we know a lot about mobile hardware. But Microsoft also knows about hardware, I mean look at the PCs they are creating, look at the tablets, we are creating as one company as well. Look at at XBox, which is just beautiful hardware as well. So I think we’ll bring to the table is mobile expertise, be it hardware, be it software, first party experience is how to bring differentiation and also how to bring that to market. So I think that kind of combination is super powerful.

Q: Lumia 2520 was the first and only tablet Nokia had introduced till now. Microsoft on the other hand has been making Surface tablets. How these two line ups of tablets will make one attraction? or there is any Surface phone coming parallel to Lumia smartphones to make it even?

A: I don’t say we hate talk about any kind of future products or anything like that. Thing like was very very clear is the acquisition and kind of common merger of the mobile devices division is to drive Microsoft experiences and that’s across the portfolio. And Lumia is what we typically use to drive that. Anyhow Microsoft is driving the Surface brand on the tablets and that seems to get really good traction as well. We are really driving Lumia and those elements as well.

Q: Nokia has done great with marketing physically and online e.g. Lumia labeled Taxi drive in different regions and my favourite one is the Twitter “Labeling the Lumia brand on your car and get a free Nokia Lumia device”. Now does Microsoft Devices has any plans to keep that track of that kind of marketing?

A: Look at this Lumia 930, we’ve put investment around the device and more awareness building this device and also on 630 as well. The part of the reason why is… we’re waiting for the new OS that comes in market and launch a new product so that we’re able to give better message. So you’ll start see more creativity and more cool things that we were doing like you’re saying on these flagship devices.

Q: Another thing on Marketing Nokia devices, I feel little unrelated to what I see in Pakistan specially. like the ads on TV are mostly dubbed or edited while the actual ads are something else and are made for another region. I mean, wouldn’t it be better with the ads made completely for local markets with more relation to the consumers?

A: Yes! it’s tricky one. We want to build a global brand so the brand stands for something – the same thing in each of the markets. Because that’s what consumers about the brand presence and you can… what the brand stands for right? and then the product is part of reinforcing that brand story. So we change our brand story in every market. It’s kind of tricky to be able to cope with that one. On the other hand we want to make sure that we cater for local tastes as well. So what we start to do, we are all doing is, the awareness will be kind of global campaign will be locally relevant. So we’ll have local contextual, cultural elements. And then we need go closer to retail, you will start to see more kind of local deals coming through with local app providers or operator partners or retailers etc.

That’s it. But we had wonderful time with Ifi Majid while talking about their products. We’ll want to have Lumia 930 on our table for the next review but it’s still yet to be released officially. Until then we’ll see if Lumia 630 reaches home first. You can also checkout our hands-on with both Lumia 930 and Lumia 630.

Let us know about your feedback in the comments section below.