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MANILA -- The maker of Nokia phones said Monday it was targeting Filipino millennials after reestablishing the brand in a market dominated by Samsung, Apple and Chinese upstarts.

Nokia launched a refreshed version of its 3310 last year, catapulting it to the second position in terms of feature phone sales in the Philippines, said HMD Global country manager Shannon Mead.

HMD Global, make up of ex-Nokia executives, has an exclusive 10-year license to manufacture Nokia phones.

Nokia's reputation for durability and its adoption of Android, the world's most pervasive mobile operating system, is a "great formula" to revive the brand, which sold 70 million handsets in 2017, Mead said.

"We're buoyed, we're ambitious, by the numbers we have seen. Of course, competition is tough," Mead told ANC's Early Edition.

The company also recently surpassed $1 billion in valuation, one of some 200 technology "unicorns" to achieve such a feat, he said.

"We now need to be relevant to that next generation. The Philippines is very millennial, very digital first," he said. "That's the start of our journey now."

Mead said HMD Global was offering the most features while watching prices. It's Nokia 7 Plus model, recently for a price cut to P19,990, or roughly a third of the cost of an iPhone or Samsung Galaxy flagship.

Nokia phones that run on Android 8 Oreo will surely be updated to the most recent version, Android 9 Pie, he said.