Brief: Nokia to close London Flagship Store on Regent Street

After being open for barely 2 years, Nokia is going to shut down their Flagship Store in London because it has “not been as efficient or as profitable as we’d have liked it to” said a Nokia spokeswoman. The decision was a tough one and has “not been taken lightly” she added, saying that the store didn’t allow to bring the company’s services services “to life”. Word of Advice: Don’t blame the terrible state of Ovi for the terrible state of your store. The 30 people who used to work there are now job hunting. Maybe they’ll get a position with the new owners of the ~ 7500 square foot space? Victoria’s Secret and All Saints are said to be interested in moving in.

[Via: Retail Week]

About The Author

Stefan Constantinescu

Stefan Constantinescu (@WhatTheBit on Twitter) has loved technology since as far back as he can remember. It started with computers, but in the past few years his passion has turned to mobile devices. As a mobile phone enthusiast who lives and breathes devices that connect to the internet, he knows he is not alone with this radical fascination of all things wireless. He is strongly opinionated and enjoys a good debate so leave comments in his posts and he’ll get back to you! Stefan began blogging as a hobby in the fall of 2006 and joined IntoMobile in the summer of 2007. Later he got a job at Nokia in March 2008, but as of June 2009 he has rejoined the IntoMobile team. He is currently based out of Helsinki, Finland.

Jay

To be fair it was one boring ass store.

They should have had like several of the same high end models lined up for people to try not hidden around for someone to hunt for. Then move the ‘other’ handsets to the back.

There’s so much hype and hubub across the street with Apple, then you go to the dreary Nokia store where the security guards point out prices of devices because they think you can’t afford it or shouldn’t touch it. The whole point of the store should have been everyone gets a feel of the devices Store peeps quite friendly though.

Product portfolio as one factor, on another, Nokia didn’t utilise the space as well as they could have.
Ze Stuart

It didn’t help that several people who worked their clearly knew nothing about the brand/product line, and didn’t care to learn (I’m tempted to call them idiots; but either way there is no way they should have been working in a flag ship store, or indeed any store).

Shame though. The 5800 launch was really quite novel.
Paul

I thought it been around for longer than a couple of years? The store was poorly marketed and not very innvoative. It’s not like the Sony stores in Japan show casing the latest technology or even simpler, like the Apple store down the road providing an environment to touch the product/get advice.

Regent Street has become uber-prime real estate thanks to Apple (it’s apparently had a halo effect on the rest of the street).
Dans

When it launched, they said it was to ‘showcase products’ not make direct sales, and it did that perfectly.

Idiots.
Stefan Constantinescu

I was wondering about that too since the UK market is very much like the USA, but that I mean people buy phones on contract, not full retail unlocked price.
Joseph

They recently started doing contracts actually and do have certain devices available on payg, which are cheaper than their sim free counterparts. Also unlocked like in CPW stores.

Ze Stuart, if you had a bad experience with a particular individual then fair enough, but that does not make everyone a bunch of ‘idiots’ that are not willing to learn does it. My experience was always positive e.g. when I got my N900 recently on vodafone, and had help with my email setup with my E71 earlier on in the year. I spent over an hour in there and did not have to pay either, unlike Apple who did when I had issues with my mac.

Now I will have to resort to going to CPW in the future, who don’t want to see your face again once you walk out their store with a product.
James

Ze Stuart, To say the staff at the London store didn’t know about the products completely clashes with my experience of the store. I work in the mobile industry and have bought 4-5 new handsets from there in the last 18 months. I have nothing but praise for the staff. It’s extremely rare you find people who know any more about a product than what is written on the box, but the staff at the Regent St store seemed very well trained & knowledgeable, way beyond the level I have experienced buying any other gadgets from any other manufacturer. I’ve recommended a trip to the store to many friends and colleagues purely based on the staff and the fact that you can try real phones, something that’s not possible in 90% of other mobile shops. I think Nokia are hugely naive to think they would ever sell many handsets direct from the store due to the way the market works in the UK. But as a resource for info on Nokia’s offerings the closure is a real shame.