Nokia suffers weak Q4 despite Lumia success

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Although its flagship Windows Phone 7 devices have been sold to over a million customers, Nokia today posted significant losses.

Its operating loss stood at €954 million (£800 million) for the final quarter of 2011, compared to a profit of €884 million, as overall sales slumped 21 per cent.

In the third quarter of 2011, operating profit had slumped €71 million.

Smartphone sales dropped a massive 38 per cent, whilst mobile sales fell 23 per cent. This was despite the company bragging about the 1.5 billionth sale of its Series 40 phone earlier this week.

While we progressed in the right direction in 2011, we still have a tremendous amount to accomplish in 2012.

Nokia was still buoyed by sales of its Lumia devices, however, as CEO Stephen Elop claimed "well over one million" of the Windows Phone 7 devices had been sold.

Currently, UK citizens can only get hold of one of Nokia's Lumia devices – the 800. However, the Lumia 710 is due for an imminent release.

The Lumia 900 could land in the UK too, possibly by the summer. Carphone Warehouse created a landing page for pre-registration for the phone this week before removing it. However, a tagline on the page indicated the device would land in June.

"From this beachhead of more than one million Lumia devices, you will see us push forward with the sales, marketing and successive product introductions necessary to be successful," Elop said.

"We also plan to bring the Lumia series to additional markets including China and Latin America in the first half of 2012.

"And, while we progressed in the right direction in 2011, we still have a tremendous amount to accomplish in 2012, and thus, it is my assessment that we are in the heart of our transition."

Nokia is less happy with its Symbian devices, revealing it expects to sell fewer than expected.

Furthermore, Nokia said it would not be appropriate to issue full-year financial forecasts, largely due to the fact it sees 2012 as another year of transition, alongside tough competition.

Last year, Nokia shocked the mobile world when it said it cancelled its yearly forecast for similar reasons.

Today's results came in the same week that Apple produced stellar results, in which it revealed sales had doubled from the previous year. Samsung, the number one smartphone seller globally, posted record profit early on in the year.

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