new technology gadget: Nokia's Q3 2012: $9.4 billion in sales, 2.9 million Lumias sold and losses trimmed to $754 million

Thursday, October 18, 2012

Nokia's Q3 2012: $9.4 billion in sales, 2.9 million Lumias sold and losses trimmed to $754 million

Q4 2011: $1.3 billion loss. Q1 2012: $1.7 billion loss. Q2 2012: $1.01 billion loss. Q3 2012: $754 million loss. It seems that Stephen Elop's financial measures may finally be having the desired effect as Nokia records its first sub-billion dollar quarterly loss for a year. It's managed to reduce its losses despite a slowdown in Lumia sales -- falling from four million last quarter to 2.9 million now, but given that the company is at the end of a product cycle, that's hardly surprising. It also had positive news to report in its "mobile phone" business, where it sold 77 million (up from 73 million last quarter) dumb, feature and Asha handsets, the latter comprising 6.5 million of the total figure. However, the company's failure to crack America isn't helping its fortunes since it only sold around 300,000 units -- although those exclusive partnerships with AT&T probably haven't helped.

Away from device sales, the company's location and commerce department had a difficult quarter, but the sale of map content licenses (to companies like Amazon) offset the dwindling popularity of standalone GPS units. Nokia Siemens Networks, on the other hand, kept raking in the cash with a $238.5 million profit. The company could also count on its regular check from Microsoft, which kicked in another $250 million to help it through its transition. Overall, it's been able to stabilize its cash reserves, with the company mattress currently holding $4.66 billion -- and with the arrival of Windows Phone 8 and the new Lumias not too far away, it might be time to crack open a little bubbly before the crew gets back to work.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Microsoft, Nokia