Nokia retreats from Japan mobile market

Nokia, the world's largest mobile phone maker, plans to stop making phones for the Japan market, one of the largest in the world.

The Finnish phone maker announced Thursday that it would stop manufacturing mobile phones for NTT DoCoMo and Softbank Mobile but will continue producing its luxury Vertu brand, according to a report by Reuters.

Nokia executive vice president Timo Ihamuotila said in a statement: "In the current global economic climate, we have concluded that the continuation of our investment in Japan-specific localised products is no longer sustainable."

While Nokia has a 40 per cent global share, the Japanese market has been tough to crack, the report notes. Some 85 per cent of the population already owns mobile phones, which tend to be part of third-generation networks that sport advanced features, such as TV broadcasting and electronic payment functions, according to the report.

Even Apple's iPhone 3G has also run into difficulty making in-roads with the Japan market. Apple sold about 200,000 phones in the first two months it was available in Japan, according to a September report in The Wall Street Journal that cited data from market-research firm MM Research Institute. However, demand has fallen, and many analysts don't believe Apple will even reach half its goal of selling one million units in Japan.

Meanwhile, Nokia also announced plans to create a platform that will allow people to use their mobile phones to control their home electronics, and security and energy management systems. The Nokia Home Control Center is designed help people reduce their carbon footprint by allowing them to remotely manage their home's energy consumption.

Teppo Paavola, chief of Corporate Business Development, said: "We want to create an open solution where external partners can develop their own solutions and services on top of our platform. We believe that the mobile device is an ideal interface to control home intelligence, especially when the user is not at home."

Nokia is expected to demonstrate the Nokia Home Control Center at the Nokia World event being held in Barcelona on 2-3 December.

Original article: Nokia to pull out of Japan market from CNET News.com