The Finnish mobile giant announced its financial results for the fourth quarter of 2012, and with it the full year results for the year, and there are several encouraging signs that promise a return to from.
Andrew already covered the details in an earlier article, but one thing that was on most people’s mind is just how many Lumia smartphones did Nokia manage to sell in the further quarter.
There answer is one that beat initial expectations — 4.4 million units up until December 31, 2012.
The fourth quarter sales are higher than what Nokia managed in the second and third quarter of the year. Q3 2012 saw the company sell just 2.9 million units, from the highs of 4 million units in Q2. Obviously the release of Windows Phone 8 had a large say in these figures.
All things considered, a number like this with sever supply issues and stock shortages can only mean good news. Even better is the bit that sales of Nokia devices in North America saw a 40 percent increase year on year during the same timeframe.
Nokia confirmed that North America sales reached over 700,000 units, up from 300,000 units in the third quarter of last year.
According to The Verge, the mobile phone maker managed to sell a total of 14.3 million Lumia devices up until the end of last year. A likeable number, but the recovery only begins.
In fact, the company itself is of the view that the first three months of 2013 are going to low and slow. Part of is due to the fact that this is traditionally a slow period, and part of it is because of some heavy competition as other smartphone makers unveil updated gadgets for the year.
But as long as things continue on this track, it could only mean encouraging news for both Nokia and Microsoft. The Lumia series is after all, one of the most eminent Windows Phone line up.
Here is an interesting little tidbit that says a lot: In recent studies the term ‘Lumia’ was searched a fair few times more than ‘Windows Phone’ itself. How is that for success!
All Comments
Nokia has a lot to prove. And this will take time. 2 generations of Windows phones show there is hope. But coming from such a dark place, this is far from enough. The next generation will be extremely important. If it sees sales increases over the second generation, it will show that consumers are taking notice. However, I will not consider Nokia even close to safe until I see it come back to a major player which I dont expect until the 4th generation.
My Nokia Lumia 920 should arrive today and it will replace my Samsung Focus (Windows Phone 7) device. I am eagerly awaiting the new phone and will see if the larger size means that I won’t necessarily need to purchase a tablet device. Meanwhile, I’ll be figuring out if it is better to carry this Goliath in a pocket or in a holster.