report about the Windows Phone decline in the same period. According to Nokia, phone sales were down 30 percent in Q1 2014 compared to the first quarter of last year. Total figures came in at €1.93 billion, which translates to $2.68 billion. Compare this to the highs of €2.77 billion and $3.84 billion from the same period a year ago, and you can gauge the severity of the situation. And as is usually the case, big declines come with big losses, and Nokia have announced an operating loss of €326 million or $452 million for this time frame. Here is what the company announced, in the PDF file:
“On both a year-on-year and sequential basis, our Mobile Phones net sales were affected by competitive industry dynamics, including intense smartphone competition at increasingly lower price points and intense competition at the low end of our product portfolio. Our Smart Devices net sales were affected by competitive industry dynamics including the strong momentum of competing smartphone platforms.”Industry dynamics are one thing, but another important factor here is the lack of a new and updated family of Lumia devices, owing to the delays in the arrival of Windows Phone 8.1. And even though Nokia have not provided specific information on the number of devices sold, one can imagine the tally to come in between the 5.6 million and 8.2 million, the two figures for Q1 and Q4 2013 respectively. Importantly, however, the average selling price of Nokia handsets have also dropped. A lot of this has got to do with the unhinged success of affordable Lumia devices like the Lumia 520, and the release of the Nokia X line of Android devices. You can take a closer look at the number for the first quarter of the year on this page at Nokia’s website.]]>
Article Categories:
Miscellaneous
All Comments
This is a result of 8.1 and new phones taking so long
They better hope so. Because if it’s not, it spells DOOM for Microsoft and Nokia.
So far, the response from the feature set of WP8.1 are positive. So I don’t see the “DOOM” of WP yet. Don’t know about Nokia though.
Numbers should hopefully change with 8.1’s arrival. With that being said, Microsoft/Nokia CANNOT be happy with this information at this point, even if they expected.
Think of the reason why the delay of WP8.1. Maybe MS wants to keep it for its own phone.
When you cater to what the phone companies want and not what the customers want, it should come as no surprise. Hopefully the Microsoft acquisition will give some direction to this company, and they can stop spending resources on idiotic diversions like Nokia X. Realistically, I doubt the acquisition will improve their situation since Microsoft’s pace of updates and innovation is the equivalent of a starvation diet.