Image: Nokia
Lumia 800.
Fourth quarter 2011 Nokia smartphone sales declined sharply. According to results published on Thursday, smartphone sales fell 31 percent from a year earlier to 19.6 million handsets.
Nokia on Thursday reported what it called "solid" Q4 performance in mobile phones and a strong balance sheet, with net cash and other liquid assets of EUR 5.6 billion at the end of Q4 2011. The Nokia board of directors will be proposing a dividend of 0.20 euros per share for 2011.
Nokia's fourth quarter core earnings per share of 0.06 euros compared to market expectation for 0.04 euros.
Fourth quarter smartphone sales were down to 19.6 million handsets, compared to 28.6 million for the same period of 2010. Nokia said that it had sold about one million of its new Windows-based Lumia series smartphones.
Nokia unveiled a high-profile strategy shift to Microsoft software on its smartphones last February in a bid to rival Apple and Google's Android. Apple this week released record quarterly results, reporting profits of 13 billion dollars during the last three months of 2011.
Altogether, Nokia Q4 mobile phone sales totalled 113.5 handsets, a decline from the 123.7 million sold during the final quarter of last year.
Even so, results were better than expected and the Nokia share price rose by around 7 percent on the Helsinki Stock Exchange immediately after figures were released.YLE, Reuters
