Nokia shutters its flagship China store, report says

April 4th, 2013

Peter Nolan

The first floor of Nokia House in Espoo, Finland.

(Credit:
Roger Cheng/CNET)

Nokia shut down its flagship store in China, which it previously touted as its largest in the world.

Nokia confirmed that the store had closed at the end of March to ZDNet. CNET has contacted Nokia to get further details, and we’ll update the story when it responds.

Nokia is shuttering the store even as it presses further to regain lost ground in China, considered one of its key markets in the company’s turnaround bid. The company told ZDNet that it would beef up its presence at its retail and carrier partners.

Despite the closure, Nokia clearly has an eye to win back market share in China. At Mobile World Congress, the company unveiled two Lumia smartphones targeted toward budget-conscious consumers, with Chinese consumers clearly in its sights.

But the push comes amid a continued decline in revenue from the region. As with many other parts of the world, Nokia has struggled to offset the declines in its traditional Symbian phone business with its new Lumia phones. In the fourth quarter, the company saw its revenue in Greater China plunge 79 percent to 213 million euros ($280.7 million). Unit sales fell to less than 5 million from 14.7 million.

China Mobile, however, appears to be a key supporter, having agreed to sell a variant of its flagship Lumia 920, the Lumia 920T, as well as the Lumia 520 and Lumia 720, announced at Mobile World Congress.

News of the shutdown comes as Samsung Electronics said it would invest in building mini-stores within Best Buys across the U.S., giving it a more direct connection to the consumer.

Nokia previously had a niche retail presence in the U.S. in a few big markets, including New York and Chicago, but had closed those down when interest here for its smartphones cratered. The company has previously attempted to win back U.S. consumers with its new Windows Phone-powered Lumia devices, but has achieved only mixed success.

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