Nokia closing handful of retail outlets, shifting N.A. focus

Capitulating to entrenched market conditions, Nokia Corp. announced plans to close four of its retail outlets. Those outlets include its London Regent Street store; stores in Chicago and New York; and an attempt to relocate its current Sao Paulo, Brazil store to a new location. There was no word on the number of jobs lost through the closings.
The mobile device giant said the move in an attempt to what it termed “crystallizing its branded retail strategy, with an aim to improve the operational efficiency of its retail network and further optimize its retail approach according to various market and channel developments in the past few years, as well as ensuring that we have a workable model that is appropriately in-line with the strategy of each individual market.”
Nokia went on to candidly describe the North America market where “over 90% of consumer purchases are made through carriers – Nokia continues to support our relationship with carriers in this market, as well as the continued expansion of our retail partner network with the likes of Amazon and Best Buy (for example), in line with our strategy. As we continue to expand our services and solutions offerings across these various channels, we have decided to close the NY and Chicago stores to allow more concentration on our other channels.”
This is a direct turnaround from Nokia’s previous plans to target the North America market through a combination of carrier relationships and its own retail strategy. Those strategies included a direct-to-enterprise play and more recently in its attempt to launch its 5800 device earlier this year without carrier support. The moves were not the first as a number of vendors have tried the end-around move past the carriers, usually with dismal results.
Nokia more recently announced an agreement with Best Buy and AT&T Mobility to offer its Booklet 3G netbook device for a subsidized price of $300 with a two-year data contract.
Over the past year, carriers have more aggressively tied their retail strategies to larger retailers like Best Buy and Amazon in an attempt to broaden their reach with little investment. These have often included the offering of exclusive devices through the retailers as well as the ability for customers to perform a number of customer care actions through the outlets, sometime to the ire of smaller players.