Nokia profits down 90 per cent
Mobile phone giant suffers, but sees demand stabilising
Nokia has reported a 90 per cent drop in its first quarter profits, blaming a fall in mobile phone demand in the face of the global economic recession.
Net profits for the first quarter ending March 31 were revealed to be EUR 122 million, down from EUR 1.22 billion the previous year.
Though overall demand for mobile devices has dropped significantly in the past year, Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo said today that demand is stabilising.
"Regarding the health of the overall mobile device market, the inventory already in the sales channels decreased substantially during Q1 due to extensive destocking by operators and distributors. This adversely impacted our sales volumes in the quarter," said Kallasvuo. "However, it has also resulted in the demand picture becoming more predictable as we enter the second quarter."
Nokia expects global mobile device volumes, estimated at 255 million units this quarter, to remain at the same level or rise slightly in the second quarter of 2009. Nokia also expects its own market share, reported at 93.2 million units, to increase sequentially next quarter.