Embattled mobile phone manufacturer, Nokia, reported a steep decline in sales and a whopping £760 million loss during the first quarter of 2012.
The company reported sales of €7.4 billion, which is down 29% compared to last year, making a net loss of €929 million, compare to just over €344 of profit from last year.
Nokia also reported a €1.3 billion operating loss, compared to an operating profit at €439 million a year earlier.
The numbers don’t make for good reading and caps off a bad week for Nokia as they had to lower their sales expectations for the next quarter.
Nokia is suffering from an incredibly competitive market and lost a lot of market share in cheaper markets like India, the Middle East, Africa and China.
Last year Nokia signed an exclusive deal with Window phone and released the widely well received Lumia range of handsets, but the sales just haven’t materialised like they had hoped.
Nokia sold a total of 82.7 million handsets during the first quarter, including 11.9 in the more lucrative smartphone market. That compares to 108.5 million phones, including 24.2 million smartphones, during the same period last year.
Since the launch of the Lumia they have sold two million Window Phone-based handsets, with company is seeing growth in activations each month.
They actually exceeded sales expectations in the US and UK, and are beginning to see a bit of momentum after the expensive marketing campaigns of the last 6 months.
They outline how the plan to get back to positive sales figure and this includes: increased advertising, more product ranges and a greater emphasis on emerging markets like China and India.
There’s a real sense of urgency at Nokia and clearly they’re concerned that their lucrative Microsoft deal is actually hampering their future growth.
It’s clear that for Nokia to succeed they need Windows Phone to succeed, but despite the huge marketing clout of Microsoft the new OS is a lonely third to Android and Apple.
Clearly it’s a marathon, and not a sprint, but time is ticking for the company with fears it could be heading even further into the red.
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