Nokia to Stop Selling Mobile Phones in Japan

Nokia has announced that it is to withdraw from the Japanese market - citing a miserly market share of just one percent as the reason. The company's luxury phone subsidiary, Vertu will continue to sell in the country though - and has been reported to be considering setting up a Vertu MVNO.

"We have judged that we cannot continue to invest in product development just for Japan amid the current tough economic conditions," Nokia executive vice president Timo Ihamuotila said in a statement.

Nokia has sold handsets through Softbank and DoCoMo - but the local operators prefer to define their handset specifications in-house and contract handset vendors to make phones for them.

The company will still keep its office open in Japan though for R&D and component sourcing.

Posted to the site on 27th November 2008