The Nokia Q3 2012 Financials Look Back on a Rough Time and a Bumpy Ride
Written by SymbianOne   
Friday, 19 October 2012

I don't have to tell you that this has been a rough year for Nokia. Smartphone sales are sluggish and the device maker seems to be struggling to find a place in the market where they can compete head on Apple, Google, Samsung and others.

 However, don't write the giant off just yet... Nokia is cash strong, their Siemens Networks are doing well and areas like Latin America are doing quite well. Regardless, here in North America you can't help but feel that the masses have written off Nokia, Lumia is but a line of smartphones that those geeky, Nokia tech bloggers get to test and create cool un-boxing videos, and outside of New York a Nokia Lumia device sighting is about as common as a Sasquatch sighting! The company has rolled out their Q3 financials and while the overall picture doesn't come across as totally bleak, a close look paints somewhat of a scary picture - thank goodness they have Nokia Siemens Networks! The following are a few numbers I picked up on from the report:

  • Nokia Group net sales in Q3 2012 were EUR 7.2 billion, down from EUR 7.5 billion in Q2 2012
  • Lumia Q3 volumes decreased quarter-on-quarter to 2.9 million units
  • Mobile Phones Q3 volumes increased quarter-on-quarter to 77 million units; strong sales start for new Asha full touch smartphones, with volumes of 6.5 million units
  • In Location & Commerce, we made progress establishing our platform offering with customers like Amazon. This is in line with our plan to expand our location offering to more customers.
  • Nokia Siemens Networks had a remarkable quarter in which we achieved record profitability
  • Net Sales are down year on year by 19%
  • Mobile phone net sales are down 19% and smart device net sales are off 56%

"In Q3, we continued to manage through a tough transitional quarter for our smart devices business as we shared the exciting innovation ahead with our new line of Lumia products." - Stephen Elop, Nokia CEO

The complete third quarter 2012 interim report with tables is available at http://www.results.nokia.com/results/Nokia_results2012Q3e.pdf