14 DAY TRIAL // Today, Finnish mobile phone maker Nokia announced its official financial results for the fourth quarter of the last year, along with the full-year results, encouraging operating profitability.
Just as announced a few weeks back, the company managed to sell 4.4 million Lumia devices in the three months ended December 31, 2012, beating initial expectations.
Furthermore, the company unveiled that sales of its devices had grown in North America by 40 percent year on year in the timeframe, reaching 700,000 units, up from only 300,000 units in the third quarter of the last year.
Fourth quarter 2012 sales were higher than both third and second quarter sales, Nokia unveiled. In Q3 2012 the company moved only 2.9 million Lumias, while selling 4 million units in Q2 last year.
As The Verge notes in a recent article, the company managed to sell a total of 14.3 million Lumia devices until December 31, 2012.
Overall, it seems that the company has finally found the recipe it needs to return to success, though the first quarter of this year is expected to be slower than the previous one.
In fact, the company itself notes that the first three months of 2013 won’t bring in as much money as the last three of 2012, due to usually lower sales and an increasingly competitive environment.
With a non-IFRS operating margin of 7.9 percent for the fourth quarter of the last year and of 0.4 percent for the entire year, however, Nokia notes that it ended 2012 with a strong balance sheet and solid cash position.
However, the company also says that the Nokia Board of Directors is set to propose that no dividend payment be made for 2012. More on the company's financial performance for Q4 2012 can be found in this document.
“We are very encouraged that our team's execution against our business strategy has started to translate into financial results. Most notably we are pleased that Nokia Group reached underlying operating profitability in the fourth quarter and for the full year 2012,” Nokia CEO Stephen Elop said.
“While the first half of 2012 was difficult for Nokia Group, in Q4 2012 we strengthened our financial position, improved our underlying operating margin in Devices & Services, introduced the HERE brand to expand our mapping and location experiences, and drove record profitability in Nokia Siemens Networks.”
“We remain focused on moving through our transition, which includes continuing to improve our product competitiveness, accelerate the way we operate and manage our costs effectively. All of these efforts are aimed at improving our financial performance and delivering more value to our shareholders,” he added.