Nokia had forewarned us that the first quarter of 2012 wouldn’t be smooth sailing for the company. And now, the abysmal quarterly financial report of the company affirms it. Nokia closed the first quarter with a whooping operating loss of €1.3 billion! The net loss for the quarter grossed at €590 million.
Nokia’s losses are understandable since Nokia is trying hard to switch from the now-obsolete Symbian platform to smartphones. However, so far, it doesn’t seem to have made an impression on the smartphone market.
During the first quarter last year, Nokia was able to sell 24.9 million whereas this year, this number is down to a mere 11.9 million. Again, this is accounted for by Nokia’s gradual distancing from the Symbian devices which were the forte of the company. The sales of Symbian phones has drastically dropped and while Nokia’s Lumia smartphone are trying to complement this by their sales, they are way off the mark, at least for now.
According to the quarterly report, the operating losses of Smart Devices and Services division alone mounted up to a huge €219 million. While Nokia suffers the brunt of the transition, it has hopes that the Lumia lineup of the company will be successful in the coming days. We did see hints here and there that Lumia devices may finally be finding a user base but compared to iPhone and Android platforms, Lumia still has a long distance to cover.
Meanwhile, Nokia is expected to register somewhat of a similar loss during the second quarter. It will certainly take a while before Lumia devices pick up and Nokia is finally able to register a quarter with profits.
Image courtesy John.
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