BEIJING: Saudis have strong opinions when it comes to selecting those accessories that define an individual’s personal style. Saudis want their watches Swiss, their perfume French and when it comes to leather, Italian shoes are best. In this digital age, the “right” personal electronics have also become essential for the style conscious Saudi. For more than a decade in the Kingdom, the most desirable mobile handsets were European — Finnish to be exact.

Nokia ruled the Saudi mobile market and they are still on top — but now there’s an undertone of dissatisfaction with their reign. This discontent developed because the decision makers in Finland insisted that retailers in Saudi Arabia would be supplied with handsets made in one of Nokia’s Chinese factories under the authority of Nokia Finland. At first it was just a few models, but since the end of 2008, the majority of Nokia handsets imported to the Kingdom are stamped, “made in China.”

“It used to be easy to sell Nokia,” said Ahmed Dahan, a salesman at Ajwa Al-Jazira Electronics. “People never questioned the quality of the brand. They were just interested to know about the technical features or the colors. Now, many of the customers are angry. They don’t like it that Nokia handsets are made in China. They don’t want to pay thousands of riyals for a Chinese phone. We tell them that the quality is the same, but many aren’t convinced.”

To be fair, it’s not just Nokia bringing handsets made in China to the Saudi market. Other mobile brands such as Samsung and Sony Ericsson also sell handsets in Saudi Arabia that are manufactured in China.

“The trend is for mobile handsets sold in Saudi Arabia to be manufactured in China. In regards to Nokia, we still get E-series devices that are manufactured in South Korea, but all their other handsets come from China,” said Adel Ali, salesman at First Class in Alrashid Mall. “Last year when so many Chinese handsets started coming to the Kingdom, the customers were very unhappy. Now there is greater understanding that the brand is still good.”

But not everyone is willing to buy a Nokia made in China. That’s where a little subterfuge can make a sale. Ali pulled out an N95 that was labeled “made in Finland.”

“These handsets come from Dubai and they have manufacturing labels that read, ‘Finland,’ but I don’t believe it,” he advised, showing the bar-coded label. “These handsets don’t have standard Nokia warranties and can only be repaired under warranty by sending them to Riyadh. I think they are really made in China and just the labels are changed. Earlier this year I sold a lot of these, but now they aren’t so popular because of the warranty problem. I’ll tell you something really funny though. Chinese people who come into my shop aren’t willing to buy Chinese made phones. They all buy handsets made in South Korea.”

So what exactly are the facts about Nokia phones made in China? Arab News went to Nokia’s Beijing factory to investigate the quality standard of the operations there. Nokia has been in China for 25 years and began exporting handsets from China in 1997. It has two factories in the country, but only handsets made at its Beijing factory are sold in the Kingdom.

China is becoming increasingly important to Nokia and not only due to the size of its manufacturing base there. China is Nokia’s largest single country market globally, with the company selling over 71.3 million devices in that nation last year, representing 13 percent of Nokia’s global net sales. By contrast, in the entire Middle East and Africa, Nokia sold 81 million units in 2008.

With the huge size of the Chinese market, Nokia is investing heavily in its Chinese manufacturing operations, bringing in equipment that is technically superior to that used in some of its other factories. Additionally, due to the insistence that its China operations be run under the same corporate culture found in its global headquarters in Finland, Nokia has been able to hire the most qualified human resources.

Nokia established its Beijing mobile phone manufacturing facility in 1995 and more than 6,500 people work there. Located in the Xing Wang Industrial Park, the factory is surrounded by Nokia’s 20 supply chain partners. This arrangement creates one of the world’s largest mobile phone industry chains, combining Nokia’s manufacturing, R&D, logistics, distribution, marketing, sales, services and management functions — all within a one-kilometer area. The establishment of the Xing Wang Industrial Park has allowed Nokia to significantly improve efficiency within its operations and save on shipping and transportation expenses. This reduces the costs related to handset creation, while enabling the company to provide greater oversight in the manufacturing of the materials and components that are used in assembling its mobile devices.

But an efficient, modern factory doesn’t necessarily result in a high quality mobile device. That’s where Nokia’s global network of 10 test centers focus on protecting Nokia’s brand reputation. Every test center certifies exactly the same quality standards, with their staff autonomous from Nokia’s manufacturing operations. The test centers are located in Oulu, Jyvaskyl, Tampere and Salo, Finland; Copenhagen, Denmark; Ulm; Germany; Southwood, UK; Beijing, China; Tokyo, Japan; and San Diego, USA. All Nokia devices are tested throughout the design process, from the first prototype to the final product. Every product goes through more than 200 different mechanical tests. Up to 1,000 handsets are tested and destroyed in the initial development of a new product and then devices are randomly pulled from factory production lines daily to ensure quality standards are maintained.

The mechanical testing is a mobile phone’s nightmare. The devices are dropped repeatedly from heights of two meters to see how many times the handset can survive such abuse. Hinges are opened and closed again and again. Buttons are punched a million times. Special machines expose the tested handsets to temperatures from minus 40°C to 85°C and they are also tossed into chambers for weeks where they will experience humidity levels as high as 95 percent. There is even a test that simulates the handset being obsessively rubbed against denim jeans. The handsets must achieve at least the minimum failure point for each mechanical test and analysis of the reason for failure is made with advanced equipment such as electron microscopes and 3D X-rays. If handsets could shriek they would, once they discover that their fate is to be sent to the device validation facility, rather than being released to the retail channel.

“The purpose of device validation is to maintain consistently good quality across the Nokia brand,” said Kennet Hansen, head of the Nokia Test Center, Beijing. “At Nokia we believe that as the largest mobile phone manufacturer we define the quality level for the market. All Nokia phones must meet our minimum standard no matter where the device is manufactured. This means that when Nokia branded phones are going out to the market, based on Nokia’s standard requirements, their failure rate is zero.”

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