Nokia beats expectations, sells 4.4 million Lumias in Q4

Nokia released a preliminary report on its performance in Q4 2012 and things are starting to look up. Nokia beat expectations with the non-IFRS operating margin expected to be between breakeven and 2%, while expectations were for negative 2-10%.

Nokia's Devices & Services department is reporting €2.5 billion in net sales, nearly half of which (€1.2 billion) coming from Smart devices (note that Nokia is counting its Asha full touch phones as smarthpones). It helps that operating expenses were lower than expected too.

The company sold 79.6 million phones, including 9.3 million Ashas and 6.6 million proper smartphones. The breakdown is this - 4.4 million Lumia phones and 2.2 million Symbians.

Nokia is also getting a €50 million sum from non-recurring IPR income (coincidentally, RIM recently had to pay Nokia €50 million after a patent settlement).

Anyway, the Nokia Siemens networks also exceeded expectations and posted a profit for a third quarter in a row. The non-IFRS operating margin for this division in Q4 2012 is expected to be 13-15%.

While Nokia is ending 2012 on a positive note, the start of 2013 will be less rosy - the seasonally weak quarter will lead to a non-IFRS operating margin of negative 2% (+/- 4%).

Source