Nokia's Store At London

We're not sure exactly what this means for the rest of the world's nine Nokia flagship stores, but it's been announced that Nokia will be pulling out of its prominent Regent Street location in London as it apparently prepares for a retail revamp going into early 2010.

Weak foot traffic is cited as the main reason for the closure, and if Nokia can't generate sales in the heart of one of its strongholds -- Western Europe -- we can't imagine that this bodes well for the other flagships either, all of which were designed and built around a high-tech, pricey theme (the Regent Street store alone was rumored to run Nokia a cool £4 million, about $6.5 million, to open) that likely drags on the company's bottom line quarter after quarter. Then again, we'd assumed that these stores were built to foster mindshare, not necessarily to contribute euro day in and day out -- but this is probably why we're not executives at a major phone manufacturer. Other Nokia stores in the UK will remain open, but for Espoo, the days of the over-the-top retail marvel of design and architecture may be over.