Glimmers of Hope for Nokia (WSJ)
Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK)‘s quarterly results over the last few years have made for grim reading. The results for the first quarter of 2013 were potentially going to be another horror story. The company had already laid the groundwork, warning in its last report that this one would be bad. It was, but as it turned out, it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. Let’s look at the two highlights. Firstly, and most importantly, the performance of the flagship Lumia range, built on Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)’s Windows Phone operating system. The Lumia is Nokia’s stake in the future. Even in the historically difficult first quarter (it comes after the holiday season) the company managed to ramp up sales by 27% to 5.6 million units. Pete Cunningham, principal analyst for Canalys, said this was a very major achievement and shouldn’t be under-played. “They are very bullish about the next quarter as well, saying they are going to sell seven million units.”
Two Years On, And Nokia’s Platform is Still Burning (WSJ)
No matter how tough the competition from iPhones, BlackBerries and Androids, the ever-shrinking phone business of Nokia always seemed to have on thing in its favor: nobody else knew the low end of the market like it did. There were cheaper products on the market, to be sure. But Nokia always had the edge on quality, and the giant manufacturing scale to push prices down. In emerging markets where customers wanted something good for less than $100, Nokia stayed number 1 long after pricier touchscreens had taken over among bigger-spending customers.
Nokia Promises New Lumia Flagship As Sales of Smartphones Collapse. (XbitLabs)
Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK) on Thursday disclosed sales results for the first quarter of 2013. As expected, shipments of its Windows Phone-based Lumia smartphones increased modestly during the quarter, but the total sales of smartphones dropped to a new low. In a bid to improve sales of smartphones in the coming quarters, chief exec of the company promised to introduce a new flagship already this quarter. Nokia Lumia Q1 volumes increased 27% quarter-on-quarter to 5.6 million units, reflecting increasing momentum. At the same time, sales of Symbian-based smartphones collapsed to 500 thousand a quarter, which indicates that the platform is nearly dear. Sales of smartphones in Q1 decreased to 6.1 million units, down from 10.2 million units a year ago and 6.6 million units a quarter ago. Thanks to the shift to Windows Phone platform, average selling price of a Nokia smartphone increased to $191 from $143 a year ago quarter and from $183 in Q4 2012.
Nokia Lumia Shipments Rise to Record Levels, Company Posts $196 million Loss (BrightSideOfNews)
Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK) posted their Q1 2013 results, and there are no major surprises: they reported a $196 million operating loss with $7.65 billion in revenue (missing analyst expectations of $8.65 billion). This loss was predicted by the company, ever since they briefly turned to profitability in the Q4 2012. Devices & Services net sales decreased 25% quarter-on-quarter and mobile phone volumes decreased 30% in the same period, “reflecting competitive industry dynamics and an estimated higher than normal seasonal decline in the market addressable by Mobile Phones.” Impact this minor loss had was somewhat dwindled by the Nokia Siemens Networks, which again turned last year’s $1.31 billion loss into $3.92 million profit. To further remove the possible doom and gloom layer, it is enough to compare this result with Q1 2012, when Nokia posted an operating loss of approx.
