Nokia pulls out of Japan, nobody notices

It's not like Nokia was dominating sales in Japan anyway -- far from it. So it's not too big a loss to walk away from its near 1 percent market share when it's sitting atop a (dwindling) 40% 39% share globally. According to Nokia vice president Timo Ihamuotila, "We have judged that we cannot continue to invest in product development just for Japan amid the current tough economic conditions." Nokia will continue to sell its luxury Vertu branded phones though, presumably on that MVNO Nokia is rumored to be rolling out this spring.

[dan @ Nov 27th 2008 4:00AM]

Wow another "nobody notices" title. How original Engadget.

[Techie @ Nov 27th 2008 4:04AM]

Dan does that mean you're another asshole? How original Dan.

[AlDeezy @ Nov 27th 2008 4:11AM]

I'm the other....other asshole.

[Ryback @ Nov 27th 2008 4:04AM]

As Japan is on the forefront of mobile technology, does this mean Nokia no longer wants to be?

[Pdexter @ Nov 27th 2008 4:14AM]

To be fair Nokia haven't ever been on cutting edge technology and either have been any of the European or American brands. Nokia makes polished products and sells them truck loads. Example 5800 started selling in Russia yesterday and sold the first 100 they got in 25 minutes(new shipment coming today) and 99.99999% of people buy Nokias some where else then the overpriced Nokia flagships store. While all the pre-orders here in Germany are full on 5800 so there comes the next +10 million seller for Nokia.

[S.Lk @ Nov 27th 2008 4:28AM]

Actually Russian flagship store sold 150 blue 5800s in 30 minutes today. I know because i was in line and got one :DDDD

[Aaron @ Nov 27th 2008 6:46AM]

Products on the forefront of technology usually don't work that well. Just look at the early Blu-Ray players and draft-N routers.

Sometimes is better to wait for technology to settle down and mature. I'd rather have a phone that works than one with fantastic (but barely functional) features.

[Daza @ Nov 27th 2008 7:35AM]

I like refined technology. Nokia are still quite innovative depending on what you need. The Japanese market is completely different with TV tuners and reliance on web-browsing, and I don't think Nokia's products fit in that category.

For the rest of the world, they do great. I personally love SE though, but Nokia still come out with impressive phones year after year. I know people always whine about how good the Japanese have it, but it hardly bothers me to have a trillion and one features in my mobile. Their market does not appeal to me, and vice versa.

[YpoCaramel @ Nov 27th 2008 1:28PM]

I disagree. Nokia hasn't been at the forefront this year, but last year with the N95 Nokia was the first out with a 5MP, GPS smartphone. I really think the the bloggers are being fickle: last year it was Nokia the wondermachine that barely sold stuff in the US and now its Nokia the boring. The iPhone might have changed the game, but its quite temporary.

[DBinSD @ Nov 27th 2008 6:12PM]

In Soviet Russia, Nokia phone calls you

[eShinn @ Dec 3rd 2008 12:51AM]

Japan on the forefront of mobile technology? Um... I lived there. Maybe on the forefront of doing new things... so new that they're incomplete and incompatible with anything else. I bought the first touch-screen/bluetooth cell phone in Japan 4 years ago. That's a few years after the SonyEricsson P800 was out (which you could buy in any country - including China and Australia - but not in Japan). The verdict? You could only get half-way to any application using the touch screen (with a stylus that was as thick as a clothes pin and attached to the phone by a shoe lace - Yeah, I kid you not) the rest of the navigation required using the directional keys, and bluetooth that consisted of cellular modem usage (who uses that?). Want to sync your contacts? Sure, that's a $30 software you can buy from a 3rd-party vendor which comes with a USB cable.... yeah, exactly my thoughts. I bought a $500 phone with Bluetooth wireless so I could plug it in. Brilliant.

I'm not even going to go into the first Bluetooth "ready" phone from AU's service. I spent $300 on the phone and then $275 on the bluetooth adapter - which took two AAA batteries and plugged into the bottom of the phone. That thing, flipped open with the adapter was 25% taller than my head! I felt like a complete tool using that stupid thing.

When I went to L.A. I bought the P910a and was trilled with it. When I went back to Tokyo a year later, I bought an F1000 (or something like that) that was kind of like a knockoff of the Sonyericsson P910a. The stylus was flat like it'd been run over, SUPER slow to turn on (I clocked it in at 6 minutes - so no I never turned it off unless needed). I also had to hack iSync to tell it that it was a P910 as well and the syncing kinda worked ... sometimes.

So sick of everyone saying how advanced Japan is. You really think so? LIVE THERE! Not just a month or two. You need to be there at least 3 years or more. Maybe I have issues, but the first house-hold robot in my home in Japan... was the Roomba vacuum cleaner. Kinda thought it funny they didn't even bother to write the button labels on the thing in Japanese either.

[Mr. S. @ Nov 27th 2008 4:20AM]

There is nothing fancy about a Nokia phone. They just work, and work well. Japan likes features, no matter how big and crappy it makes the device. Nokia had to spend too much money trying to figure out how to unpolish their devices for them. So good for them... Sell what they got, and if someone has taste they'll buy it.

[Cailean @ Nov 29th 2008 12:17AM]

Thing is, Japanese phones are usually beautifully designed and with decent interfaces. Nokia simply made no effort to design for the Japanese market. They simply dumped there phones as-is into the mix to see what would happen. The usual results ensued; lack of mail support, incompatibility with cell-phone-centric web offerings, and uninspiring design (Japanese like phones that are fashionable, and aluminum bricks don't cut it).

I've been a Japanese cell phone customer for six years, and only recently switched to an iPhone. Talk about culture shock! I suddenly felt excluded from my friends in terms of email, and I simply can't access any of the standard cell phone sites. The built-in camera is an absolute joke (by any standard, really). Except for the shiny factor, there is little here to tempt the average Japanese consumer. They have robust devices packed with features that double as fashion accessories. They can rely on them to do everything they need without having to be tethered to a computer. It seems pretty obvious to me where the western companies are missing the mark; it's pretty baffling that they haven't been able to knock something together yet that works.

[TI89THUG @ Nov 27th 2008 4:22AM]

What kind of phones are popular in Japan?

[podi @ Nov 27th 2008 4:27AM]

"nobody knows"

[Matías Halles @ Nov 27th 2008 4:29AM]

Function-overloaded crap-interface phones.

[Michael LaFramboise @ Nov 27th 2008 4:36AM]

Matías Halles,

Hey, I'd rather have "Function-overloaded crap-interface phones" as you so well put it, then function-less, underperforming and ugly crap (crap interface included) thats sold in the States. And yes I live(d) in both Japan and US so I have experience with both sides. However you spin it, the trash thats being sold in US for ridiculous prices is 4-5 years behind even the low-end phones in Japan

[zip @ Nov 27th 2008 5:05AM]

Japanese phones are popular in Japan. It is a very difficult market to enter for non-Japanese consumer electronics companies.

I doubt any of the other non-Japanese mobile phone makers are making much of an impact in the Japanese market. South Korean brands such as LG and Samsung might be somewhat relevant there, I don't know.

For example, what is Motorola's market share in Japan?

[greenlight @ Nov 27th 2008 5:13AM]

@Michael LaFramboise: Well yeah everyone knows US phones are complete turds. Instead look to the rest of the world (europe/middle-east/asia) with really decent Nokia/Samsung/Sony Ericsson/LG/HTC phones.

[gikku @ Nov 27th 2008 5:34AM]

Japanese consumers prefer to buy Japanese brands and product, not just electronics but in many fields. They prefer Japanese quality, Japanese design, Japanese thought, communication, culture, very different from western and even other eastern cultures.

[Hacik @ Nov 27th 2008 6:07AM]

Judging from my staying in Japan, I believe that the main problem of Nokia is, that Japanese use only flip phones (clamshell phones) and that's something Nokia is really bad at. If you look at mediocre Japanese phone, you'll see one big screen with fine dpi, which covers almost full width of the phone, and at least one another external screen, all phones are rather slick and thin. Nokia can't match these criteria. Japanese youth are very opened to western culture, especially USA, I won't be surprised if Motorola's RAZR were a good seller.

[Down @ Nov 29th 2008 7:23AM]

@ gikku

That isn't entirely true. Guess what the top-selling mp3 player is in Japan...unfortunately, yes, its the iPod.

[Vianon @ Nov 27th 2008 7:42AM]

Iphones? Ok ok that was easy...

[eShinn @ Dec 3rd 2008 12:51AM]

...the kind that you replace ever 4 months. Seriously. That's the rate of purchase there.

[eShinn @ Dec 3rd 2008 12:51AM]

@Michael LaFramboise

If the U.S. is 4 or 5 years behind Japan, why is it that they just finally got Motorola Razrs just under 2 years ago?

[eShinn @ Dec 3rd 2008 12:51AM]

I have a question. If American phones are so bad ... why is everyone suddenly wanting to be just like the iPhone?

[All Bo @ Nov 27th 2008 4:23AM]

Do love how Engadget makes every of it's Nokia posts seem like they might be out of business next year while making 1.1 billion euros in Q3. At least if there's anything to look how much 5800 is getting preorders it might be Nokia's next 6300 with over 20 million phones sold and making 20% of Nokia's profit last year.

[Jakob @ Nov 27th 2008 4:53AM]

They simply said Nokia only has 1% marketshare in Japan and 39% in the world. You're probably just a Finnish troll, who is OH so proud of the largest company in the Nordics.

[Yours Smugly @ Nov 27th 2008 5:12AM]

A Finnish troll?? Trolls are Norwegian, remember!

[Ammar @ Nov 27th 2008 4:27AM]

Nobody notices??? Nokia just announced it like an hour ago.

[darkdude @ Nov 27th 2008 4:33AM]

That's What She Said!

[Michael LaFramboise @ Nov 27th 2008 4:37AM]

To be fair, I think your comment would make more sense if the article title would be flipped over ;)

[kidcanuck @ Nov 27th 2008 5:37AM]

You beat me to it.

[Samboini @ Nov 27th 2008 5:54AM]

Kidcanuk, pun intended?

[Ammar @ Nov 27th 2008 4:42AM]

I just noticed the small hand is Japanese LOL

[Marcela @ Nov 27th 2008 10:54AM]

How can you tell?

[go seki @ Nov 27th 2008 5:11AM]

Read - the Japanese market is too sophisticated for us .. and the US market too unsophisticated ..
Japanese handsets are far advanced from even the N96 .. 1 seg TV tuners have been common for some years.
The Flip and Rotate HUGE and hi-resolution screen is popular for this purpose and for web-browsing.

[Beastage @ Nov 27th 2008 5:43AM]

It is not just that the japanese market is hard, many stores simply ignore foreign companies because of what would be illegal agreements in most of the modern world.

The japanese firms have a super tight grip on japanese media and japan market and wont allow foreign brands in.

[90 @ Nov 27th 2008 2:14PM]

@Aaron ... I totally agree with you. no matter how sweet it sounds on catalogues they are all slow dumb featurephones doesn't even play mp3s. and what they f*ck do with those shiny VGA,WVGA,or even Half-XGA displays are only WAP browsings, and carriers charge on full browsers. can anybody here imagine people call iPhone crap because they don't do WAPs?

# I hope sometimes in future i can talk again with my friend about nokia's "next-week-forever" here in Japan...

[Steve @ Nov 27th 2008 8:00PM]

@90
have you even bothered reading the specs and even trying to look at japanese phones without SH@T F@#$ assuptions? In terms of the smartphone and mp3 arguement its only valid outside of japan... don't ask me... ITS APPLES and osny's fault... japanese love AAC files... thats right AAC... not mp3. And read carefully too, these feature phones actually have a full browser. Before you open your mouth please REAd something instead of an uninformative blog (Engadget... aka a falme blog!)....

As for being locked down those phoens are just as locked down as my rogers phone in CANADA! XD

[90 @ Nov 29th 2008 4:50AM]

@Steve
Indeed they play m4as, but as movies w/o picture. It won't show up in built-in music players(sometimes they have more than one).
Yes, they have Full browsers, Some even have ACCESS Netfront with FL3.1 support, with another 10$ charge atop your no-tethering flat rate data plan.They have sorta Java apps, which code not compatible between carriers. You can have a have PC-like address for mails, but can't use SMS over carriers. If you want to buy one, the cheapest pricetag should be around $70-100 on contract. $450 is typical for most of them.You can at least make a contract for any of your unlocked phones, but flat-rate plans and mail services for locked devices only, so using your own $500 superstrong-superphone in another carrier is very unlikely the case.

I hope this help you understand why Nokia couldn't make it.
Actually I'm a Japanese. I say sorry if you feel my English strange.

[higeki @ Nov 27th 2008 6:02AM]

Nokias are crap, period. This guy is blaming the bad economy. Nokia never did well here. My modest mid-range Sanyo WS63A will run circles around the top of the line Nokia. I don't know about other parts of the world, but JDM phones are much more advanced than the phones in the States. I remember when camera phones were first introduced in the States. My friends were telling me about it, and I was like "You guys are JUST NOW getting them???"

[Aaron @ Nov 27th 2008 6:11AM]

You see, from a European perspective, Japanese phones are crap.

They're huge bricks and they're virtually all flip phones. They might have some advanced features but where are the smartphones? If I can't install the applications I want on a phone then it's worthless.

Not to mention how ridiculously expensive and locked down Japanese phones are.

[Joe Marriott @ Nov 27th 2008 6:58AM]

I question the existence of this phone, a google search brings up one result, this page of comments.

[higeki @ Nov 27th 2008 10:03AM]

I made a typo, it's a Sanyo W63SA. Sorry! Trust me, this phone is nothing special...but better than any POS Nokia.

[Wolfticket @ Nov 27th 2008 6:51AM]

39% of the mobile phone market is still maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaasive. I'm not sure dwindling is the right word, maybe shrinking.

[ace587 @ Nov 27th 2008 8:04AM]

not surprised, japanese phones own nokia anyday

[nanobis @ Nov 27th 2008 3:34PM]

Well this means that their obviouslt not as big as me then.

[xbeta @ Nov 27th 2008 4:35PM]

all Japanese are big fans of flip phones... so there is really no room for Nokia to step in

Japanese only care about the look

just look at how iphone is doing at Japan

[go seki @ Nov 27th 2008 6:48PM]

Actually the iPhone is doing rather badly in Japan .. sure there was the initial hype and the fashion factor .. but for practical purposes the iPhone is just too dumb to be much more than an iPod Touch with a poor phone built in. Many Japanese who have an iPhone also carry their "real" phone to use 1seg - camera calls take video/photos etc .. and .. oh yeah copy and paste ..