Espoo, Finland – North American sales of Nokia handsets and related
services fell in units and dollars during 2010’s fourth quarter and for the
full year, the company’s latest financial report shows.
Worldwide, the company’s handset revenues rose 4 percent in the
fourth quarter to 8.5 billion Eeuros and 5 percent for the year to 29.1 billion
euros, while worldwide unit shipments fell 3 percent in the quarter to 123.7
million units but rose 5 percent for the year to 452.9 million units.
In North America, unit sales fell by 32 percent in the fourth
quarter to 2.6 million units and by 18 percent for the full year to 11.1
million units. In euros, North American handset volume fell 9 percent to 233
million euros in the quarter and by 12 percent for the full year to 901 million
euros.
Based on preliminary worldwide market-size estimates showing
worldwide handset shipments growing 13 percent in 2010, Nokia estimated its worldwide
unit share fell to 32 percent in 2011 compared with 2009’s 34 percent.
Worldwide handset operating profits fell 16 percent in the
quarter to 1.02 billion euros and fell 0.5 percent for the year to 3.3 billion
euros.
When factoring in all of Nokia’s business segments, including
Navteq and Nokia Siemens networks, company-wide net sales grew 6 percent for
the quarter and 4 percent for the year. Operating profit fell 23 percent in the
fourth quarter to 884 million euros but for the year rose 73 percent to 2.07
billion euros.
In a statement, the company said it “delivered solid performance
across all three of our businesses and generated outstanding cash flow.” The
company also said growth trends in mobile devices “continue to be encouraging,”
but the company acknowledged that it “faces some significant challenges in our
competitiveness and our execution. In short, the industry changed, and now it’s
time for Nokia to change faster.”
During an investors’ conference call, chief executive Stephen
Elop hinted as possible changes to the company’s device lineup, which uses the
Symbian OS. He said the company must consider “multiple ecosystem patterns” in
a possible reference to the adoption of the Android or Windows OSs.
