Now that we know who were the top smartphone vendors of Q4 2017 in India and around the world, as well as the names of the biggest companies that managed to defy the industry’s stagnation and significantly improve their full-year sales numbers, it’s time to also focus a little on the smaller players.

One player in particular caught the attention of market researchers starting around Q2 2017, having made a very timid debut in China over the previous quarter. Of course, while HMD Global was technically an inexperienced smartphone manufacturer, the Nokia brand’s “sentimental value” earned the Finnish startup quite a bit of attention and buzz right off the bat.

Thanks to stellar software support, decent PR work and especially “quality smartphone launches”, HMD was able to ride an unexpected wave of nostalgia and consumer goodwill, tallying a respectable 8.45 million unit sales for the whole of 2017.

That doesn’t include revived feature phones like the hugely successful new 3310, mind you, bringing Nokia incredibly close to Q4’s top ten smartphone brands. In the October – December timeframe alone, Counterpoint Research estimates “Nokia HMD captured 1 percent market share”, roughly equating to 4.15 million units.

That’s more than Sony’s mobile total during the same period, closely following Meizu’s 4.2 mil score, which was apparently enough for a tenth place global showing.

It’s important to remember that Q1 2017 saw a microscopic 100,000 Nokia smartphones sold worldwide, a number HMD boosted to 1.4 million between April and June, then 2.8 mil in the July – September timeframe, and finally, 4.15 million units over the holiday season. If the company can keep this growth rate up, we’ll be talking very differently about it in 12 months’ time.