14 DAY TRIAL // Back in January, Nokia announced that it was planning to launch its luxury cell phone brand Vertu in Japan, and now we learn that the Finnish mobile phone maker has kept its promise, and the first Vertu store has been opened in the country. Users will be able to purchase hand-crafted cell phones from the store.
The new store was opened in Tokyo's ritzy Ginza district, and users will be able to find there handsets for prices starting at ¥6 million (US$64,400). At the same time, we also learn that Vertu plans to establish itself as a mobile phone operator in the country, using an MVNO (mobile virtual network operator) model across NTT DoCoMo's network, so as to be able to provide customers with specially crafted services.
Given the fact that we're talking about a luxury brand, the services that it would offer come with a price as well. This way, a monthly subscription to the Vertu MVNO is said to be priced at ¥52,500, which would be about 15 times more than the cheapest basic monthly fee that is available from NTT DoCoMo.
Vertu is targeting its services at wealthy consumers, who could be rather attracted by the handsets it has to offer, which are hand-assembled in the U.K., and not scared away by the prices. The company will also offer an on-call service that can help with advice on travel, entertainment, restaurants and events.
Vertu opened its store in Japan at a time when other luxury goods retailers started to be affected by the growing recession in the country. At the same time, the launch follows only a few months after Nokia pulled itself off the Japanese market. The company considers the local market as being a challenge and closed its business here as part of its global restructuring process.