Nokia Launches High-End Services in Japan

Nokia and Nokia Siemens Networks announced in a joint statement that Vertu, the luxury mobile phone brand owned by the giant Finnish mobile phone maker, would begin offering a range of mobile services in Japan starting this year.

Nokia will be present on the Japanese market as a so-called Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO). The company becomes this way the first phone manufacturer to enter the service provider area in the country, a market segment that has been until now led by domestic companies.

Vertu is a provider of expensive, handcrafted handsets that sport a design based on titanium, gold, jewels and crystals. The company announced that it intended to offer in the country a range of high-end services that would include a personal concierge service for its users.

“Meeting the needs of customers in this segment requires a specialised approach. Vertu users the world over are discerning individuals who are willing to pay a premium for the right experience,” Tagore Ramoutar, Vertu's director of business development for Japan and Korea, said in a statement.

The companies announced that Vertu's MVNO service would be hosted by the Nokia Siemens Networks on its Singapore hosting center, “which is capable of servicing customers throughout the Asia Pacific region,” as NSN stated. No details on the value of the deal have been disclosed until now.

Back in November, the Finnish phone manufacturer announced that it was pulling out of the Japanese market, a decision driven by rather disappointing sales. At the same time, the company decided to leave its high-end Vertu brand in the country.

Most of the Japanese users have been too little attracted by mobile devices designed by makers outside the country, which drove domestic carriers into adding to their offerings a wide range of Japanese-made phones and less foreign ones.