New Delhi, April 5: It's beyond the shadow of doubts that Nokia has been going through rough patches over the past couple of years. Recently, the company said it has shut its flagship store in Shanghai, China, as part of a strategy to save costs and sell its phones through carriers and retail partners instead.
The Shanghai store was its largest remaining shop. The Nokia Shanghai store was opened in 2007, one of about 10 worldwide. At that time, Nokia was still China's top phone-maker with its Symbian platform. But then Apple's iOS and Google's Android came into picture. The result: in 2012, Nokia's sales were down 79 per cent throughout the year in China.
"For a while now, we've been focusing on operator and third-party retail outlets, rather than our own physical stores," a spokesman said in an email.
The Finnish company has also sold and leased back its company headquarters in Espoo, Finland, in an effort to preserve its cash position and improve mobile phone sales.
In contrast, Apple has three major stores in Shanghai, and has rapidly expanded to have eight Apple Stores in four cities across mainland China.
