Nokia’s interim report for the first quarter of 2013 showed shipments of its Lumia smartphones were up 27% on the previous quarter to 5.6 million units. It’s expecting even greater sequential growth of these Windows Phone smartphones in the next quarter.

Total smart device shipments were down 49% year-on-year to 6.1 million and other mobile phone volumes were down 21% year-on-year to 55.8 million units.

Overall, Nokia shipped 11.1 million smartphones in the quarter: 5.6 million Lumia smartphones, 5.0 million Asha touchscreen handsets and 0.5 million Symbian smartphones. Around two-thirds of the Lumia devices ran the new Windows Phone 8 platform.

Net sales for the quarter were down 20% on the same quarter last year to €5.9 billion (around £5 billion), while an operating loss of €150 million (£128 million) was an improvement from Q1 2012 but a drop from profitability in the previous quarter.

Stephen Elop, Nokia’s CEO, said “At the highest level, we are pleased that Nokia Group achieved underlying operating profitability for the third quarter in a row. While operating in a highly competitive environment, Nokia is executing our strategy with urgency and managing our costs very well. We have areas where we are making progress, and areas where we are further increasing the focus. For example, people are responding positively to the Lumia portfolio, and our volumes are increasing quarter over quarter. Nokia Siemens Networks delivered another strong quarter and contributed to an overall improvement in Nokia Group's cash position. On the other hand, our Mobile Phones business faces a difficult competitive environment, and we are taking tactical actions and bringing new innovation to market to address our challenges. All of these efforts are aimed at improving our financial performance and delivering more value to our shareholders.”

[Results (pdf)]