Nokia’s luxury brand Vertu to launch mobile services in Japan

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Luxury mobile phone brand Vertu, owned by Finnish cell phone giant Nokia, will this year begin offering mobile services in Japan, it said in a joint statement with Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN).

The Finnish company will become a so-called Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO), thus becoming the first mobile phone maker to encroach on the Japanese service provider domain, which has been dominated by domestic companies.

Vertu, which makes expensive, handcrafted handsets that are often embellished with titanium, gold, jewels and crystal, said it would offer high-end services including a personal concierge service for its users.

“Meeting the needs of customers in this segment requires a specialized approach. Vertu users the world over are discerning individuals who are willing to pay a premium for the right experience,” Tagore Ramoutar, Vertu’s director of business development for Japan and Korea, said in a statement.

NSN said it had been contracted to host Vertu’s MVNO service from its Singapore hosting center “which is capable of servicing customers throughout the Asia Pacific region,” but did not reveal the value of the deal.

Last November, Nokia pulled out of the Japanese market due to disappointing sales, but chose to leave its high-end Vertu brand in the country.

Mobile devices designed by foreign manufacturers have traditionally been unpopular among Japan’s notoriously finicky consumers and the many domestic operators have tended to link their subscriptions with Japanese-made phones.