Nokia has been struggling a lot in creating new ways and methods to take the North American market with the Lumia 900 sales. No doubt the popularity of the phone, in regard to the frequency of its appearance in the news, was sky-high but the actual sales proved to be not so encouraging. When the sales reports were made public, Nokia felt...

A few days ago Nokia announced its financial results for Q1, 2012. The report bears dual nature. Firstly, it shows the company is transitioning from feature phones to smartphones, and secondly, it depicts the superiority of Windows Phone over Symbian. According to the report, Nokia has totally sold 83 million phones out of which the 71...

Nokia has published Q4, 2011 financial results and according to them, the company sold 19.6 million units, which is by 31 percent less compared with the same indicator last year, but is by 17 percent more compared with Q3, 2011. Most likely, this growth (loss) was guaranteed due to Lumia series smartphones, but Nokia doesn’t think so saying it has sold over 1 million Lumia devices to date, and not only in Q4. However, this is a ‘transition year,’ and having Q4 net loss of 1.07 billion Euros, down from a 745 million euro profit in the fourth quarter of 2010 is not that bad.

For ordinary people like you and me such a sum of money is incredible, but Nokia and Microsoft are spending mind-blowing amounts to promote their jointly-made handsets, the Lumia 800, 710 and 900. The first two devices have already managed to register shocking sales numbers, and Nokia’s first LTE device is expected to complete Nokia’s return. US consumers are impatient to get their hands on the Nokia Lumia 900, which can mean only one thing — they want it. Moreover, there are rumors Nokia will launch the Lumia 900 via other carriers like T-Mobile. Other than that, Nokia’s also preparing the handset’s European version, the Lumia 910.

In short, these days there will be many geeks trying to humiliate Nokia saying Apple has sold 37 million devices last quarter, while Nokia only 19.6 million units. But let’s be honest and say Apple is at one level of the pyramid and Nokia is at another. And what Nokia has done during past months can be equaled to the labors of Hercules.

Yesterday Nokia announced the financial results for Q3, 2011. Though the company is not in the first position, there are areas Nokia showed unexpected results. Well, we all understand things will change by the end of the year, because the Finnish company will launch the first Windows Phone smartphones. However, what we have now is not so good as the analysts predicted.

In the period between July-September Nokia sold 16.8 million smartphones, which takes the company to the third position after Samsung (20 million) and Apple (17.07 million). This number is 34% less compared with the same period last year, but it is 1% more than the last quarter indicator. This can’t completely show Nokia’s losses, because the market is growing and Nokia’s still losing its market share.

Second, Nokia sold 89.8 million feature phones, which is 8% more compared with the last year and 25% more than last quarter. So even if Nokia’s not performing that good in the high-end smartphone market, it’s still a leader among low-end phones.

Nokia’s operating losses make up €71 million, but in some sense the company shouldn’t be unhappy with it especially if we compare it with last quarter’s indicator, which made up €487 million. The company’s operating profit makes up €252 million, which is less than what it had last quarter (€391 million). Net sales made up €8.98 billion, down 13% year-on-year and down 3% from Q2.

We have to mention all these indicators are based on the Average Sales Price (ASP), which was €131 for Q3, that is 8% less than last quarter and 2% less than last year. The feature phones’ AVS was €32, down 11% compared with Q2, and 20% compared with last year.

As you see Nokia must do its best to get back its fame. It’s already taken the right direction, so I believe Q4 results will be much better.

Nokia is one of the companies that formed the smartphone market. Back in 1996, no mobile manufacturer could be compared with Nokia — its sales reached such heights that all other companies could only envy. Now we all know the company is in a more difficult situation because of the loss of market share that brought the Finnish company to financial collapse.

According to Nokia’s official Q2 report, in 2011 an unprecedented fall in the manufacturer’s smartphone sales was recorded. Though the company mentions in its report that “the challenges we are facing during our strategic transformation manifested in a greater than expected way in Q2 2011,” we understand that is just an excuse or an attempt for it, since Nokia sold 24.3 million smartphones in Q1 and only 7.6 million units in Q2. This means the company lost about $692 million (€487 million).

These numbers are disappointing, especially when we have a closer look at certain indicators: The company’s net sales in Q2 2011 were €9,275 million, while in Q2 2010 this number was €10,003 million. The operating loss is €487 million and the operating profit is €295 million. The difference is obvious.

Lastly, the company showed negative earnings per share of -$0.14 (€0.1).

Many people will say these results were expected in this strategic transformation period, and I can agree with them, but if after Nokia’s Windows Phone-powered smartphones’ launch these numbers don’t change, no excuse or explanation will be accepted.

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