Last week Nokia warned that its quarterly results would be disappointing - and today it’s published those figures. Net sales for Q1 2012 were down 29% year-on-year to €7.354 billion (around £6 billion), while the Q1 2011 operating profit of €439 million has become a €1.34 billion loss this quarter.
Stephen Elop, Nokia’s CEO, “We are navigating through a significant company transition in an industry environment that continues to evolve and shift quickly. Over the last year we have made progress on our new strategy, but we have faced greater than expected competitive challenges. We have launched four Lumia devices ahead of schedule to encouraging awards and popular acclaim. The actual sales results have been mixed. We exceeded expectations in markets including the United States, but establishing momentum in certain markets including the UK has been more challenging. We have a clear sense of urgency to move our strategy forward even faster.”
Nokia shipped 82.7 million mobile devices in the quarter. Just 11.9 million of these were ‘smart’ devices, down 51% from the Q1 2011 figure of 24.2 million due largely to a drop in Symbian sales.
The company has also announced that Colin Giles, executive vice president of sales, is stepping down from his position at the end of June.
[Nokia interim report (pdf)]