14 DAY TRIAL // The Finnish company feels there is no more room left for expansion in the world's forth largest mobile market, Japan, since it believes that, starting next year, the economic crisis will hit this country pretty hard too. Also, since more than 80% of Japan's population already owns at least one mobile phone, Nokia feels that it should retreat while still in the heyday of glory.
Such a decision was probably a very tough one to make, should we consider how hard Nokia tried to expand on Japanese territory, only to state now that it’s forced to retire from the "battlefield" in order to act in the company's best interest.
This decision is also explainable by the fact that, on such a market, where people use mostly third generation handsets, it's very hard to implement an advanced mobile technology religion. Not even Nokia's most powerful rival, Samsung Electronics, seemed to have more success here. Thus, only the Vertu, the luxury brand device from the Finnish manufacturer, will still remain on the market.
Timo Ihamuotila, Nokia's executive VP declared that, "In the current global economic climate, we have concluded that the continuation of our investment in Japan-specific localized products is no longer sustainable."
Such a decision was admittedly very surprising to all, mostly because of Nokia's initial statements, which had it that the Japanese market represented a certain priority, as the aim was to increase the market share to at least a two-digit number. This decision surprised even local mobile operators, like NTT DoCoMo, Japan's largest network operator, which, just last month, announced a new smartphone coming there from Nokia.
Michito Kimura, IDC Japan analyst, shed some light on the announcement, saying that, "Nokia is facing global earnings problems and many other issues, and this shows Japan was a low-priority market at a time when they are shoring up global operations, even though it may still be attractive. [...] I'm not very surprised by the decision."