Nokia reported to be set for Japan exit

Nokia is reported to be preparing to leave the Japanese market within the next few months and will close its own brand retail stores by the end of July.

The local Nikkei newspaper reported that the stores selling its luxury brand phones, Vertu had been struggling to gain sales as smartphones grew in popularity. The Vertu branded concierge service will be closed down in August.

Nokia stopped selling handsets through the networks in November 2008 after its market share dropped below one percent. Nokia had 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.

A year later, the company cut 220 jobs as it scaled back R&D efforts in the country.