Nokia reports $585 million profit for Q4 2012

Lumia sales help to put Nokia into the black for Q4 2012

Doom and gloom has leant itself to Nokia in recent times, with its decline in market share and falling revenues making for a bad time for shareholders.However, Q4 looked a little more rosy, with increased Lumia sales (4.4 million’s worth) contributing to an overall profit of $585 million (~£370 million), although it has still decided not to pay a dividend to shareholders.

Previous financial reports had not looked so promising for Nokia – Q3 2012 showed a $754 million loss and Q4 2011 $1.2 billion – so it’s good news to see the Finnish firm’s finances on the rise again. That being said, Nokia did still making an overall operating loss of €2.3 billion in 2012, although that was partly to be expected with its restructuring and the immaturity of Windows Phone.

While increased Lumia sales figures are good news for Nokia, the 4.4 million in Q4 is still dwarfed by Android and iOS. It was the Nokia Siemens Network arm of its business that contributed the most to Q4 profit, with the sales of overall mobile devices dropping 74 percent and the sales of ‘smart’ mobile devices (WP and Symbian devices) dropping 81 percent.

2013 will be an important year for Windows Phone, and therefore Nokia, and will have a big impact on the overall strategy itself and Microsoft take for the OS. Too few sales could lead Nokia down the road of Android, as has been previously rumoured, but a buyout from Microsoft – which could afford to make losses to help establish WP – isn’t all that unlikely, especially with the talk of an Apple buyout also arising thanks to the iOS maps debacle.

Via The Verge

Source Nokia