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If you were asked to guess the trickiest part of fitting out one of Nokia鈥檚 new flagship stores, you might point at the wall-to-wall plasma screens or the hundreds of working phones hooked up to them. But according to Faithful + Gould (F+G), the project manager for the mobile phone company, it was the innocent-looking sheet of blue glass that sweeps around from the shop window up the entrance steps. The Helsinki shop has been open five months, but it鈥檚 only just gone in.

鈥淚t鈥檚 part of the structure, but we鈥檝e had a huge problem with local contractors finding the right blue 鈥� this is the third one we鈥檝e tried,鈥� says Neil Clemson, a director at F+G, who is managing Nokia鈥檚 global stores programme. 鈥淭hey鈥檝e always been tinted with green because of the heating process. At the Shanghai store we are going to need six storeys of glass for the facade.鈥�

The blue is important because the stores are all about branding. Nokia doesn鈥檛 make mobiles anymore, it makes 鈥渄evices鈥� and it鈥檚 competing not only with traditional rivals like Motorola but with Apple鈥檚 iPhone. Device makers are fed up with taking a back seat to network operators such as Orange or Vodafone, who give away phones as an incentive to sign a contract, so they鈥檙e engaging with customers directly. 鈥淲e take pride in our products 鈥� it鈥檚 hard for us to see them given away like bars of soap,鈥� says Jeremy Wright, Nokia鈥檚 retail concept director. 鈥淩etail is becoming more and more important to us; it鈥檚 a showcase.鈥�

Nokia plans to spend at least 拢60m on 18 flagship stores in cities across the globe, and increase its network of smaller franchise outlets from 300 to 1,000. The first Nokia store opened in Moscow in December 2005, and there are now a further five around the world.

Clemson and Wright are showing me around the latest, in Helsinki. It鈥檚 not an obvious site on a list that includes New York, Hong Kong, Mexico City, Chicago and (shortly) central London and Heathrow Terminal 5, but Nokia is Finnish and this is its home town.

The first things that hit you are the screens 鈥� a kaleidoscope of shifting content on every wall. Then there are the 130 devices. Pick one up and a screen flashes up a synopsis of its features. Each is fully functional 鈥� a far cry from the sticky plastic replicas in Carphone Warehouse. And, according to Clemson, a security nightmare. 鈥淵ou have to let people touch the real product,鈥� says Clemson. 鈥淏ut you鈥檝e got a very expensive product attached by a little wire. We spent two years developing the alarm system.鈥�

Making the screens so integral to the look of the stores is also a gamble. As he points out, 鈥渋f the content fails, you鈥檝e got a very blank store鈥�. But this is a ploy to make the design as adaptable as possible 鈥� mobile phones are the fastest moving market bar women鈥檚 fashion. Across the globe, content is piped in from an agency in Soho, and it can be changed at the click of a mouse, or altered instore to reflect local climate conditions or mood. Wright was involved in Nike鈥檚 concept stores, which were groundbreaking in the early nineties but tired-looking now. Nokia doesn鈥檛 want to suffer the same fate.

Mobile phones are also the subject of fierce competition. Wright and Clemson admit Nokia is following Apple, but they鈥檙e confident that they can topple it. We meet a few days after the iPhone was launched, and they鈥檝e just spent a week in Lapland revving up their team.

鈥淎 couple of years ago, Apple stores were definitely leading the field,鈥� says Wright, 鈥渂ut we鈥檝e got much more technology than them. There was a great review in the New Yorker that described the Apple store as 鈥楲ittle House on the Prairie鈥� compared with ours in terms of technology. And by the way, our products are much better than the iPhone,鈥� he smirks. Nokia鈥檚 London store will replace Dickins & Jones on Regent鈥檚 Street, 鈥渄irectly opposite Apple鈥�. So you鈥檒l be in their faces? 鈥淎bsolutely. And we will be big and blue.鈥�

Of Sony鈥檚 new flagship in west London, Clemson says archly: 鈥淚t鈥檚 nice to see them taking reference from us.鈥� Wright chips in: 鈥淭here鈥檚 opening and there鈥檚 opening.鈥� 鈥淵eah, if you want to open in Knightsbridge, fine, but Oxford Circus takes a bit longer. We spent a year convincing Crown Estate that we weren鈥檛 just another Carphone Warehouse.鈥� In the end, they flew their landlords to Helsinki to visit a prototype store in the woods. 鈥淲e pulled it apart two or three times and we had all the Nokia staff flowing through, giving us their opinions. We鈥檝e probably done more testing than anyone else on the high street.鈥� It went down well with the landlord. 鈥淎s soon as he walked in, he said: 鈥榊es, we want one of those.鈥� We were surprised with the reaction of the planners. We expected them to say: 鈥楾his is ridiculous, you can鈥檛 do that,鈥� but it was so different that they got excited.鈥�

If the Nokia stores are reminiscent of Apple鈥檚 gleaming glass, it may be because they鈥檝e employed the same designer 鈥� San Francisco鈥檚 Eight Inc. They鈥檝e also specified that the stores have a Scandinavian feel with lots of timber to challenge the misconception that Nokia is Japanese or Korean.

F+G is project managing the entire programme with a team of 20-odd people across 15 offices. It鈥檚 a punishing schedule 鈥� in 2007, it will open 500 stores in Europe and China alone, and 100 in the Asia-Pacific, almost two a day.

A fit-out takes 20 weeks from possession to opening, with two weeks to install the technical kit including about 25km of wiring. The work is packaged up 鈥� a local contractor is brought in to complete the basic box, then anything with a 鈥渇ailure factor鈥�, such as audiovisual equipment, technical shopfitting, or the LED displays, is carried out by a specialist. 鈥淎 functional failure would be an absolute disaster,鈥� says Clemson. For the London store, F+G is doing detailed design work with Dalziel & Pow, and will be tendering for fit-out contractors over the next few months. Contractors who fancy a go at matching that elusive shade of blue should get in touch.

Hopefully they should do better than their Russian colleagues. Clemson says that in Moscow, 鈥渨e had problems with the quality standards. We had a local project manager on the job, and the European project manager babysitting it with him, and between them they forced it through.

鈥淢any were sceptical about the live phones. The managers of all the other phone stores were like: 鈥楾his is great, now all the thieves will go to your store instead of ours鈥�.鈥� But the store brought in more than 拢10m in its first year and only three phones were stolen. 鈥淭he fact that they have burly guards probably has something to do with it,鈥� he adds.

With a store that鈥檚 all about the brand, you wouldn鈥檛 expect to make many sales 鈥� the stores make excellent cr猫ches for bored husbands out with their wives. But in fact, the chain has a respectable 6-10% conversion rate 鈥� Wright says Niketown鈥檚 was 10-12% but the goods were much lower value. In Moscow, it鈥檚 as high as 12-13% and newly minted Muscovites are prepared to spend a startling amount on the bling Vertu range of 鈥渋nstruments for personal communication鈥�, which come in ostrich leather, platinum or diamond, and cost between 拢3,500 and 拢230,000. 鈥淭hey love it,鈥� marvels Wright. 鈥淭hey turn up with carrier bags of money.鈥�