Nokia HMD captured 1% market share in Q4 2017 smartphone market. Nokia’s smartphones have been well received in the market making it grow rapidly in recent quarters. The brands sentimental value within dealers and customers paired with quality smartphone launches is helping Nokia gain further market share. The brand has diverse portfolio covering multiple price band category helping it expand further in volume.

As mobile analyst Tomi Ahonen points out the linear growth from a very small release in China during Q1, through the limited handset rollouts in Q2 and Q3 in Europe, to the wider availability in Q4 means that the 2017 sales will be 8.5 million units.

Given the Nokia 6’s sales debut was January 20th in China, there are three more weeks of sales to add to the 2017 total to take it to 52 weeks. With an expected run rate in excess of 1.4 million handsets per month, that means HMD Global’s debut in the smartphone market is about to pass (or has just passed) the ten million unit mark in just over twelve months… Stand by for a triumphant announcement on the Mobile World Congress stage later this month before announcing the next wave of handsets (expected to included the Android Go powered Nokia 1, the surprising Nokia 7 Plus, and the debut of the Nokia 9 flagship).

The 4.2 million units sold in Q4 puts HMD Global ahead of Sony’s handsets in the same quarter, and there is an argument that Nokia should be seen as being ahead of Xperia. Of course the first ten million sales have had an advantage that will not last - emotion. Very few manufacturers have a brand name that is instantly recognisable and trusted by consumers. In European and the BRIC countries Nokia still carries the same cachet as you find with Apple and the iPhone.

But as the sales build up and the low-hanging consumers are picked off, each subsequent sale costs a little bit more to acquire, is to a consumer who has a little less affinity with the old ‘brand Nokia’, and is more costly in resources for the Finnish start-up. That is balanced by the momentum built up by an increase in sales, a larger presence in the market, and more financial resources gathered through the sales.

The jump from pre-schooler start-up to confident adolescent has been made. 2018 is the year that HMD need to prove it can grow up and be seen as one of the grown-ups in the smartphone world. The next target is simple. Double the share. Get the Nokia smartphone name on two percent of the market and claim a place in the Top Ten smartphone brands by sales.