Nokia still in the red in Q3 sales bloodbath
Windows mobes couldn't come soon enough
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Microsoft newlywed Nokia stayed in the red with an operating loss of €71m (£62m) in its third quarter ended 30 September 2011.
That's a smaller figure than the company's Q2, when Nokia lost a gigantic €487m (£425m), which CEO Stephen Elop at the time blamed on its new strategy bringing with it "ambiguity" for the firm's customers reeling from the Microsoft tie-up.
The Finnish handset maker, which struck a deal with Redmond in April to build several Nokia Windows phones together, shipped 18 million dual-SIM devices during the quarter.
Smartphone sales dropped 38 per cent, with the company shifting 16.8 million devices that were based on Nokia's old Symbian platform.
Elop said that the company's "channel inventory situation" and "sales execution" had improved in Q3.
However, total sales tumbled 13 per cent to €8.98bn compared with €10.27bn for the same period a year earlier.
"I am encouraged by the progress we made during Q3, while noting that there are still many important steps ahead in our journey of transformation," said Elop.
"With each step, you will see us methodically implement our strategy, pursuing steady improvement through a period that has known transition risks, while also dealing with the various unexpected ups and downs that typify the dynamic nature of our industry.
"During the third quarter, we continued to take the action necessary to drive the structural changes required for Nokia's long-term success."
Nokia is expected to launch its first Windows-based handset next week, but volume shipments of the devices won't appear until 2012.
Shares in the firm rallied more than 10 per cent to €4.9, following Nokia's Q3 announcement, its best stock exchange performance in months.
The full results are here. ®
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COMMENTS
Simplez
If you have sacked most of your workforce, aren't making very much and not selling very much, then you won't be losing as much..
It really as as simple as that, and whilst Elop and his Microsoft cronies might by trying to spin this as a positive, Nokia are fading and fading FAST, even a Windows Phone that nobody wants will save them...
N9
Elop's medium term plan is to slowly suffocate Nokia to the point of death, then rescue it by the MS knight in shining armour coming to its rescue with a buyout for a fraction of it's worth had Nokia been managed properly. Elop's ONLY answer is Windows. He can't allow even the possibilty of any other strategy to succeed, hence restricting sales of the N9 to Timbukto and the dark side of the moon!
It's Sendo all over again but this time there's a lot more expertise, IP and hardware for MS to gorge themselves on.
Toast
Nokia are toast. This is a simple destruction of a technology company by another company. Elop is the weapon, nothing more or less. The NOK engineers are all looking for new jobs and no more engineering will come from NOK. Sad but true. They are "just another reseller" in a crowded market peddling phones based on an OS/UI that few want and no amount of marketing money will change that. Hopefully it will all bring down Balmer and his useless minions and lead to something worthwhile. It won't however save NOK which might as well become a division of MS now and save everyone from the completely futile suspense.
That being said, I may just get an N9. It may well be the last truly interesting smartphone for some time. Personally, I like Symbian, and as far as I can see, Android is the pits - I mean it sucks so bad only a mother could love it. So maybe Maemo/Meego or whatever it actually is on the N9 will be worthwhile. It cannot possibly be worse than Andrombinoid.
Dweeb
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