Ashford W. Meikle, Business Reporter

Left: Executive vice-president for customer and market operations at Nokia, Robert Andersson. - Contributed.   Right: A local user of a Nokia phone. - file

Nokia, the world's largest mobile phone manufacturer, has selected Miami as the site for its new Latin American headquarters as it moves to leverage the south Florida city as its regional hub.

"The emerging markets represent growing volume for high-end products," said Robert Andersson, Nokia's executive vice-president for customer and market operations, at a press conference in Coral Gables.

The office, to be located in Miami's Enterprise Zone, will cover some 25,000 square feet and is slated to begin operations in November. It will employ about 100 persons.

The company has put its vice-president for export sales for Nokia Latin America, Olivier Puech, in charge of sales and marketing of its products in the Caribbean, a market he characterised as 'healthy'.

"Growth is healthy in the Caribbean and it is a market with great potential," Puech said in an interview, in which he acknowledged that there was a dearth of information on Nokia's Caribbean sales.

In Jamaica, the business flows from replacement phones, said the mobile salesman.

"It's a big help to us to be closer to our customers there with this new office and we will be working with the agents there to ensure the [prompt] shipping of our products," said Puech.

It is estimated that about 1.8 million Jamaicans are mobile users. However, unlike Barbados, which has an 85 per cent penetration rate with high-end users, Jamaicans are predominantly low-end users.

Prior to the launch of the office, Nokia's Americas headquarters in Texas was responsible for sales and marketing in the region.

Important growth markets

Latin America, with a population of some 551 million and average per capita income of US$4,008, according to 2005 World Bank data, is considered one of the most important growth markets in the mobile communications industry.

Jamaica's GNI is estimated by the World Bank at US$3,400.

The region accounted for €2.7 billion (US$2.12b), or eight per cent, of Nokia's global sales of €34.1 billion (US$26.83b) at the end of last year. The company has two manufacturing plants in Mexico and Brazil and up to June this year employed 4,500 in the region, representing seven per cent of the mobile company's 66,000 global employees.

Nokia, which has a local presence in almost a dozen Latin American countries, is the leading brand in the region.

"Our phones are reaching people whose monthly income is US$50-US$100 per month - we take a very human approach to technology, connecting people to what matters most to them," he said. The U.S. dollar is now valued at J$66.

In Jamaica, the Nokia brand retails as low as $2,500, tax included, while its high-end phones range as high as $70,000 for the Nokia slide. All three local cellular service providers, Digicel, Cable & Wireless Jamaica, MiPhone, and their agents, retail the brand.

Some two thirds of the world's six billion-plus population are currently mobile subscribers, and Nokia, whose tagline is 'connecting people', has ambitions to sell phones to a good portion of the remaining two billion.

Already, 800 million people, or 12 per cent of the global population, use a Nokia device on a daily basis, but Andersson conceded that, with the proliferation of new mobile products, it was increasingly "more difficult for Nokia to stand out in the crowd."

Senior vice-president for Latin America's customer and market operations, Maurizio Angelone, says mobile penetration in Latin America has surpassed 50 per cent of the population with the greatest usage in Chile (75 per cent), Columbia (66 per cent), and Argentina (62 per cent).

The regional market continues to grow, he said, with some 100 million new subscribers expected to sign up during the next two years.

"The majority of this growth [will come] form Brazil, Mexico, Colombia and Argentina," said the Nokia executive.

ashford.meikle@gleanerjm.com