Nokia will close branches of its Moscow retail stores this year, an influential industry analyst claims, as the company rethinks its strategy amid slowing sales in mature markets.
According to a Tweet from the seemingly extraordinarily well connected Eldar Murtazin of Russian site Mobile Review, at least some of Nokia’s stores in the capital will be no more by the end of 2011.
He attributes the move to a downturn in demand for Nokia handsets that has seen turnover drop dramatically.
Murtazin stated: “Turnover of Nokia flagship stores in Moscow down three times in last quarter. Nokia will close some of such shops until [sic] the end of year.”
His predictions come after Nokia pulled down the shutters at its London branch in Regent Street last year – a move that would have been especially painful for the Finns given the success of Apple’s flagship outlet on the same street.
Nokia was thought to have seen establishing stores more as a brand building exercise rather than as a viable smartphone-shifting business.
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