Nokia has announced a significant drop in sales for the fourth quarter in the mobile phone division, a possible blow to Microsoft, which agreed last year after several consecutive quarters of increases, to takeover the business from the Finnish company for €5.4 billion.
The between Microsoft and Nokia deal was announced in September of 2013, both companies highlighting back then that the upward trend in sales of phones and smartphones Nokia is the main argument for the giant Microsoft bet, notes the Wall Street Journal.
In preparation for the winter holiday season, Nokia has launched a range of Lumia smartphones and even a tablet, trying unsuccessfully to change the downward trend of its sales.
Nokia revenues from the mobile phone business have dropped in the last three months of 2013 by 29 percent compared to the same period in 2012 and by 4.5 percent compared to the third quarter of last year.
Nokia managed to sell 8.2 million Lumia smartphones in the fourth quarter, which includes the holiday shopping season during winter, compared to 8.8 million units sold in the third quarter.
The general manager of Nokia, Timo Ihamuotila, announced today that the group shipped last year a total of 30 million Lumia smartphones equipped with the operating system Microsoft Windows Phone, compared to 13.3 million units in 2012. However, sales are far below the target of 50 million units per year estimated by Microsoft, a prognosis which was supposedly meant to recover the investment after taking over the mobile division of Nokia. The downward trend of the last three months of last year is worrying for the software manufacturer.
Shipments of handsets with advanced features stagnated in the fourth quarter, with a better performance than sales of smartphones.
Nokia said that the smartphone sales decline was due to the strong position of competing platforms and a difficult transition to Windows Phone operating system.
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