Nokia Q4 Results Exceed Expectations

Better than expected Nokia Q4 results have boosted the Finnish manufacturer’s share price by 13 percent, but it has warned that the first quarter of 2013 is unlikely to be as positive.

Nokia’s mobile phone business achieved profitability thanks to mobile phone sales of €3.9 billion (£3.2bn). More than 86.4 million devices were sold in the quarter, including 6.6 million smartphones. Sales of the Windows Phone-based Lumia range accounted for 4.4 million of this number.

Positive Nokia Q4 results

“We are pleased that Q4 2012 was a solid quarter where we exceeded expectations and delivered underlying profitability in Devices & Services and record underlying profitability in Nokia Siemens Networks,” said Nokia CEO Stephen Elop. “We focused on our priorities and as a result we sold a total of 14 million Asha smartphones and Lumia smartphones while managing our costs efficiently, and Nokia Siemens Networks delivered yet another very good quarter.”

The company said its results were helped by €50 million in patent fees, lower than expected operating expenses and good performance from its Nokia Siemens Network unit. It had told investors that it expected the period to be a “challenging quarter” with “a lower-than-normal benefit from seasonality in volumes.”

The figures are an improvement on the third quarter of 2013 where it posted an operating loss of £467 million, however this was still an improvement on losses of £1.2 billion in the second quarter and £1.1 billion loss it sustained in the first quarter.

Sales of Lumia handsets plummeted in the three months leading into last October as consumers waited for the company’s Windows Phone 8 handsets. These have since been released, including the new flagship device, the Nokia Lumia 920.

However, Nokia has said that the first quarter of 2013 will be less profitable thanks to the competitive environment and the fact that it is traditionally a tough sales period.

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Originally published on eWeek.