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Nokia first quarter results show that the struggling phonemaker suffered a £1 billion loss as sales crashed 40 per cent.
In an earlier analyst meeting Nokia chief Stephen Elop said that the company had a "clear sense of urgency to move our strategy forward even faster."
While the scale of the loss is epic, much of it comes about through one-time charges largely stemming from a hefty £630m loss from Nokia’s deeply unprofitable joint venture telecoms equipment venture Nokia Siemens Networks.
Phone sales slumped more than 20 per cent as Nokia’s older Symbian-OS powered phones fell quicker than expected while Nokia’s Windows Phone-powered Lumia range managed just two million handsets sold. Not a bad start but not yet particularly profitable given the firm selling the handsets cheaply to get a foot in the door.
Meanwhile Kantar ComTech figures this week showed that the smartphone market has increasingly turned into a two horse race with Android attaining 50% market share in the UK and Apple surging upwards to 29.2%. In the US the lock-down is even more striking with Android making up 46% and iPhone 44% of the market leaving just 9% of the market left to rivals such as RIM and Windows Phone.
Elop is now, as one might expect, turning to focus on Nokia Siemens Networks and promised a significant restructuring effort. Just as Nokia’s consumer business is dogged by stiff competition, so too firm’s the carrier hardware venture is increasingly coming up against competition from the likes of Ericsson and Huawei.
Nokia’s stock has fallen to a historic low after ratings agency Moody downgraded the firm’s view of Nokia earlier this week.
