Nokia is planning to close down its high-end Vertu business in Japan

As they continue to tighten their belt in this never-ending unpredictable market, Nokia is planning to close down its high-end Vertu handset business over in Japan – mainly due to some struggles it has been seeing of late over in the land of the rising sun.

Already, Nokia stopped selling their S40 and Symbian devices altogether over there, but they decided to keep around their Vertu business intact – well, all up until now. In fact, the Nikkei reports that the Finnish company will close down Vertu handset stores within Tokyo’s Shibuya and Ginza districts by the end of July. Taking into consideration the prevalence amongst smartphones, Vertu’s handsets are having a difficult time trying to secure business with the growing popularity of smartphones in general.

Vertu services will continue to operate until the end of August when their contract with NTT DoCoMo is expected to expire – thus, seemingly signaling the end of Vertu’s presence in the country. However, its offices in Japan will continue to remain open until the end of the year – and then after, they’ll be closed down as well.

source: Reuters via Phonescoop