Jan 27, 2011 13:42 GMT  ·  By

Today, Finnish mobile phone maker Nokia has announced its financial results for the fourth quarter of the last year, and posted net sales of EUR 12.7 billion for the time frame, up 6 percent from the fourth quarter of the previous year, and up 23 percent from the third quarter of 2010.

The company also announced that it managed to sell a number of 123.7 million handsets during the time frame, 3 percent less than in the fourth quarter of 2009m and 12 percent up when compared to the third quarter of 2010.

During the three months period, Nokia managed to ship 28.3 million smartphones (converged mobile devices), marking an increase of 36 percent from the year before, and a 7 percent increase when compared to the previous quarter.

Other highlights from the company's announcement include:

- Devices & Services net sales of EUR 8.5 billion in Q4 2010, up 4% year-on-year and 18% sequentially (down 3% and up 19% at constant currency). - Services net sales of EUR 201 million in Q4 2010, up 21% year-on-year and 26% sequentially; billings of EUR 352 million, up 57% year-on-year and 8% sequentially. - Nokia mobile device ASP (including services revenue) of EUR 69 in Q4 2010, up from EUR 64 in Q4 2009 and EUR 65 in Q3 2010. - Devices & Services gross margin of 29.2% in Q4 2010, down from 34.3% in Q4 2009 and up from 29.0% in Q3 2010. - Nokia operating cash flow of EUR 2.4 billion and cash generated from operations of EUR 2.5 billion in Q4 2010. - Total cash and other liquid assets of EUR 12.3 billion and net cash and other liquid assets of EUR 7.0 billion at the end of Q4 2010. At the same time, the company announced that, for the entire year 2010, its market share went down to 32 percent, compared to 34 percent of the market it accounted for in 2009. The company also notes that industry mobile device volumes went up by 13 percent during the last year, when compared to the year before.

For the first quarter of the ongoing year, the company estimates Devices & Services net sales between EUR 6.8 billion and EUR 7.3 billion, along with non-IFRS operating margin for this segment to be between 7 percent and 10 percet in the first quarter 2011.

“In Q4 we delivered solid performance across all three of our businesses, and generated outstanding cash flow. Additionally, growth trends in the mobile devices market continue to be encouraging. Yet, Nokia faces some significant challenges in our competitiveness and our execution,” Stephen Elop, Nokia CEO, stated.

“In short, the industry changed, and now it's time for Nokia to change faster,” he added.