Nokia To Stop Selling Mobile Phones In Japan

The world's largest handset maker - Nokia, will stop selling cellphones in Japan except for its high-end brand Vertu due to its small presence of only 1% in the Japanese market. The 1% market share seems pathetic as compared to the Finnish mobile maker's 40% global share.

The main reason why Nokia phones fail to boost mobile sales in Japan is that phones made by Nokia doesn't have many cool features unlike the high-performance local-made devices.

"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.

According to Gartner, huge cellphone makers such as Nokia and Samsung Mobile would expect slow cellphone sales growth next year due to economic woes.

"In the last few weeks, the global economic slowdown, combined with unprecedented currency volatility, has resulted in a sharp pull back in global consumer spending," Nokia said in a statement.

Cellphone sales in Japan fell 28 percent from a year earlier and were flat from the second quarter, and sales in Western Europe also were down, from 47.2 million to 43.5 million. On the other hand, cellphone makers have seen sales rising in emerging markets such as China and India with great thanks to first-time phone users.