It was back in 2008 that Nokia had decided to cease its mainstream operations in Japan, a market where people were used to “better spec’d” handset compared to the standard fare that Nokia had on offer in the country. The only Nokia unit that continued business in Japan was its high end, luxury brand Vertu which did manage to hold on to the Japanese customers psyche for two more years.
With the advent of next generation smartphones, it seems the Vertu’s which even now, runs ancient software, and is no longer a luxury device of choice for many.
Anyway, that has ended now with Nokia deciding to exit the Japanese market entirely. By the end of July, Nokia will shut down its last few Vertu handset stores in two districts of Tokyo and in that process, exit the Japanese market for good.
Nokia Japan also had a Nokia Phone service that ran on a leased infrastructure from NTT DoCoMo. This contract too is slated to end by August 30 after which Nokia will exit that line of business, as well. It will however continue to have its offices in the country till the end of 2011 to handle refunds, warranty claims and other issues.
The complete exit of Nokia, one of the most influential mobile phone companies of all times does point towards the tumultuous last few years the company had. With the advent of faster, nimbler adversaries, Nokia seems to have been stuck in a time warp for the past few years. It was only recently that Nokia showed us “some” signs of a fightback. We wonder if that effort came in a tad too late.
[Via Reuters]
